Obama’s “Greek temple” Built by Britney Spears’ Set Designer

Yes, Conflucians, it’s true.

The same set team that designed Britney Spears’ last tour has constructed the enormous, Greek-columned stage where Barack Obama will officially accept the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday, The New York Post reports.

The set, which was reportedly designed to resemble the White House and Lincoln Memorial, was built inside the 75,000-seat stadium — Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver — under the direction of Bobby Allen, Spears’ former staging manager.

The Republicans are going to have a field day with this one. No wonder some Democratic officials are nervous about Obama’s acceptance speech tonight. They fear their candidate will come across as someone who is more interested in looking like a rock star than a politician who can reach out to the middle- and working-class Democratic voters.

DENVER – Senior Democratic officials are expressing serious concerns about the political risks posed by Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium Thursday evening.

From the elaborate stagecraft to the teeming crowd of 80,000 cheering partisans, the vagaries of the weather to the unpredictable audience reaction, the optics surrounding the stadium event have heightened worries that the Obama campaign is engaging in a high-risk endeavor in an uncontrollable environment.

A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama’s convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and that it gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate.

Gee, no kidding. Lots of us ordinary folks have already figured out that Obama is a malignant narcissist who couldn’t care less about average Americans. It’s a little late for “senior Democrats” to be figuring that out; but better late than never, I guess.

The Obama campaign is aware of these concerns.

“It’s likely that the campaign would do it differently if it had to do it again because the decision was made before the European trip,” said a senior Democratic elected officeholder who has worked closely with the Obama campaign. The GOP narrative of Obama as celebrity took root during that trip, where the Illinois senator played to large crowds of adoring Europeans.

Obama campaign officials acknowledged the apprehension Wednesday.

Well, we’ll just have to wait and see. But Obama had better deliver a real humdinger of a speech tonight. After all, since he is so lacking in experience, words are pretty much all he has to offer.

This is an open thread. Pictures provided by our inimitable SM.