Obama pledges Greek

In 1960, after John F. Kennedy decided to move his convention acceptance speech from the brand-new Sports Arena to the larger Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum next door, he addressed a crowd of 80,000 from a stage that seen through 21st century eyes looks innocent and modest, if not clumsy. On the front of the lectern, just beneath the microphones, was a simple sign, its capital letters as skinny as Kennedy's tie, reading "Democratic National Convention." Below that, a large painted eagle spread its wings.

American political stagecraft is more cunning and aggressive these days. During the last eight years, George W. Bush and his top set dresser, the former ABC producer Scott Sforza, teamed up to produce a number of multimedia backdrops mixing Orwellian message control with enough bunting to fill Omaha.

But even the most dedicated member of the Bush White House would have to admit the boldness -- the weird, allusive, surprising boldness -- of the set built for Barack Obama's speech Thursday night inside Denver's Invesco Field. Not content with a basic combination of video screens and slogans, Obama's campaign produced a full-on neoclassical temple facade: four imposing Doric columns and 10 sizable pilasters, all connected by a frieze and arranged in a gently curving arc. From the center of this colonnaded contraption extended a long peninsular walkway, lined with blue carpeting and capped by a circular stage and wedding-cake steps. Like a nervous parent dropping a child off at school, the set seemed to protect Obama and push him forward at the same time.

John McCain's advisors were quick to ridicule the setup as overblown, reflective of Obama's generous self-regard. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, who got an up-close look, noted that "the columns turned out to be made of drywall and laminated plywood."

Still, however oddly Athenian the whole thing seemed at first glance on television, the set did manage to distract viewers' attention from the gigantic scale of the stadium. The Obama campaign made the decision to move the acceptance speech from the indoor Pepsi Center to the 76,000-seat Invesco Field months ago. That was well before Obama's European tour left him vulnerable to charges that he is a rock-star candidate who loves to soak up cheers from adoring crowds.

If his advisors felt they couldn't move the speech out of the stadium, however, they apparently realized they could at least make the stadium look less like itself. The set managed to bring this 2001 structure -- designed by the Kansas City firm HNTB Architects in a sleek, ornament-free style -- down to size.