Here's the image that was behind Fred Thompson at his convention speech, which was mostly about the Passion of John McCain (via BAGNewsNotes):

It's cynical, but it underlines the message, mentioned in some form by every big speech at their convention: John McCain suffered for your sins.

No, it's not a concrete history of Vietnam, but it's supposed to signal that, no matter how bad of a position you're in, John McCain has suffered worse. He understands pain, and it's really no surprise that Republicans are waiving this narrative high and wide: it's the undercurrent and the justification for the Religious Right and movement conservatism in the US. How many times do we have to hear about how conservatives suffer and are marginalized (activist judges, liberal media bias, college professors who want to kick them off campus, the destruction of their culture, Culture Wars, existential war, demographic winter, etc.)?

Well, enough times to maintain a permanent conservative majority in the US.

Here's Rudy G's (also via BAGNewsNotes):

'Nuf said. Noun, verb, 9/11.

Here's Sarah Palin:

The quality of the pic is worse, but you can see that she was speaking in front of beloved national monument Mt. Rushmore. I bet you didn't all know that she had more executive experience than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt... combined.

And here's John McCain, up close:

What? They're doing the green screen again? Let's zoom out:

My first thought was that it was just one of his mansions, and that this was some sort of irony or caricature of the McCain Housing Crisis.

Turns out it's Walter Reed Middle School in California. No particular reason for it to be so honored, except someone working for McCain apparently mixed it up with Walter Reed Medical Center:

Yep, that's not what he was standing in front of, at all.

And that's probably the most appropriate image of all the speakers at the Republicans' convention: utter incompetence at even the most basic of tasks.

The material effects of which, conveniently enough, are demonstrated by Walter Reed Medical Center.

Here's Bil's take on the whole thing: