<p>At a Michelle Obama event, reporters from the Carnegie-Mellon University student newspaper "observed one event coordinator say to another, ‘Get me more white people, we need more white people.’ To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, ‘We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.’</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>(For those who would criticize this blog for relying on a college newspaper, please recall how much the Obama campaign in its TV ads relied upon the support for his health care plan by the college newspaper the Daily Iowan.)</p>
<p>In any case, that Michelle Obama advance staffer just summed up the candidate’s issues in Pennsylvania. They do, indeed, need more white people.</p>
<p>Polls say they’re getting more and more of them every day.
I’m shocked, shocked that Obama’s event coordinators would do such a thing. I thought Obama stood for a break from the approach of the Bush administration.</p>
<p>I was at an Obama event in February and watched the event coordinator carefully select and place people on the risers that became the backdrop for the stage Obama would be speaking from. Our city has very few people of color. The coordinator was absolutely scrambling to replace some of the white people on the risers with a more colorful pallette. It was fascinating to watch, but my impression was it was just show biz.</p>
<p>If you remember the Republican convention from 4 years ago…the cameras would focus on the handful of African American delegates there. Jon Stewart and the Daily Show made a real big funny deal about it.</p>
<p>It’s naive to imagine otherwise. Ever since JFK beat Nixon in the first televised debate, the play to the camera has been a conscious thought of every successful campaign manager, ever since. </p>
<p>If you learned that in the debate, John F. Kennedy wore make-up while Richard M. Nixon sweated, that’s only half the story. Kennedy, the first president who had a sense of TV media, had advance people who discussed “make-up” in hearing of the Nixon advance men. The Kennedy advance men knew NIxon was a sweaty guy. </p>
<p>When Nixon believed Kennedy was going to wear make-up, Nixon refused, thinking himself too manly. Kennedy never put on any make-up. As a result, Nixon looked clammy and uncomfortable, eyes darting sideways. Kennedy was serene and just spoke directly into the camera. No need for make-up.</p>
<p>Look at the backdrop of people behind Hillary the night she lost in Iowa; older establishment folks like Madeline Albright, Joe Biden if I recall correctly. They saw their mistake and changed her backdrop of faces when she spoke from New Hampshire. There she was backdropped by young people. </p>
<p>Start watching what the McCain backdrop looks like in the coming weeks, too.</p>
<p>I’d be concerned if a candidate did not have consciousness of the media, thinking him/her hopelessly out-of-touch.</p>
<p>As I started reading this thread I had the same thought as westcoastmon. She just beat many of us to it! The cc where I teach struggles to get a diverse student population, but you’d never know it by looking at our public relations materials!</p>
<p>My son and I joked that all the schools we visited clearly had great ethnic diversity–in the students that appear at info sessions and lead tours.</p>
<p>Several years ago the University of Wisconsin got caught having photoshopped an African-American student’s face into a crowd shot of white students at a football game in their Viewbook!</p>
<p>I’ve been at rallies for various candidates over the years and that stuff happens all the time. Yes . . . it’s just show biz.</p>
<p>Simba
dont be fooled that the Obama rallies are the only ones that might “stack the rows” S was passing by a Huckabee rally on the U of S Carolina campus way back when there were still more than one candidate in the Republican race and the organizer tried to cajole him and his three friends into the bleachers so they could show some “young faces”.</p>
<p>They all seem to stack the deck - candidates’ podium shots, college brochures, company brochures, etc., but, is anybody here fooled by it? If you see extra ‘white faces’ behind Obama does it make you think he’s more of a rep for whites? If you see more black faces behind Bush do you think he’s more of a rep for blacks? I suspect that everyone here would say “no, they’re not fooled”. Given that, is anyone fooled by this deck stacking? If not, why do they persist?</p>