Six or so years ago some friends and I enjoyed an evening in the audience of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show in Hollywood California. The show wasn’t good enough for me to remember who the guests were that night, but I do remember what was, to me, the most entertaining portion of the evening.

Before the show went live, studio crew walked the audience through procedures used during live taping.

Basically, they used “lighted text” signs stationed above the audience (behind the cameras, of course) that gave out various commands.

When they wanted the audience to clap, the signs would light up and say “clap you bastards.” When they wanted you to stop making noise, the signs would light up and say “shut the f*** up.”

A little foul in language, perhaps, but this was a late night show and the entire process was rather funny.

More importantly for the show, however, is they needed to develop the perception that a genuine interest by the audience existed throughout the show. This was successful even when things weren’t funny or worth a cheer.

In that particular environment, this behavior is acceptable since it’s done purely in the name of entertainment and the show itself does not pretend otherwise. They’re open about the process and most of the public is aware of what is going on.

The office of the President of the United States, in my opinion, should be far above this sort of practice.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama’s office is not.

Barack Obama recently held a “Memorial Rally” after the mass-shooting in Tucson Arizona. Per the usual Obama theatrics, the rally looked and felt more like an Obama campaign stop. Michelle Malkin links to evidence of branded t-shirts and other goo....

As Gateway Pundit points out, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs took the drivers seat in t....

When asked about the rally atmosphere, Gibbs had this to say.

I will say that I read the speech several times and thought that there wouldn’t be a lot of applause if any. I think many of us thought that. But I think there was a celebration, again, of the lives of those who had been impacted. Not just at that grocery store but throughout the country. And I think that, if that is part of the healing process, then that’s a good thing.

The problem with this statement is that it appears to be a complete front for what looked like a full scale astroturf campaign.

As you can see in the picture below, the Obama team actually put “applause” prompts on the Jumbotron during the rally.

Isn’t it amazing that the same political crew who accused the organic grassroots tea party movement of being astroturf happens to be the most astroturf political crew in American History?

-Eric Odom