When we first heard the rumor of a GOP “mystery guest” on the final night of the convention, many people jokingly suggested it would be a Ronald Reagan hologram. As it turns out, that wasn’t a joke:
Despite some conflicting reports, Yahoo News has learned that a hologram projection of former President Ronald Reagan is in the works and was originally intended to debut outside the halls of the Republican National Convention this week. But its official unveiling has been put on hiatus until later this year or early 2013.
“It wasn’t officially going to be part of the convention,” Tony Reynolds, founder of crowd sourcing website A Kick In Crowd, told Yahoo News in a phone interview Thursday. “It was going to be outside of the convention at the Lakeland Center.”
Reynolds obtained rights to a Reagan speech discussing small businesses and plans to use the hologram to promote the Jumpstart Our Business (JOBS) ACT. He has been working with AV Concepts, one of the companies behind the creation of the Tupac Shakur hologram, which was unveiled at this year’s Coachella Music Festival.
However, Reynolds says he discussed the idea with a number of Republican activists who asked him to delay the project out of concerns it would overshadow Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech.
“At the time he hadn’t chosen Paul Ryan, so I think they were a little worried about his energy,” Reynolds said. “Even in a hologram form I think Reagan’s going to beat a lot of people in terms of communicating.”
Another reason Reynolds said he delayed the unveiling was he didn’t want the hologram to be used for partisan purposes.
Well, duh. What did you think it would be used for?
Frankly, I’m glad the idea was abandoned. There’s something both creepy and cheesy about holographic Presidents showing up at conventions.
