I have no problem being proven wrong - it leaves me just that little bit wiser and better educated than I was before.
Having said that, the picture continues to look impossibly poorly structured to my eye. I immediately stood down yesterday on the issue when I saw that there was a video of the same scene that corroborates the still image. But - studying them both this morning shows some notable inconsistencies.
Take a look at both the picture and the video at the link below. Things to watch out for:
*The line of perspective along the tops of their heads - even allowing for height differences is way out of whack with the line drawn through any other reference points - like the tops of the chairs or the stripes on the flag, for example. Those two reference lines parallel each other quite well, incidentally.
*Look directly behind Obama's hip in the photograph. You will see the bracing behind the flag holding it up. There is grey sky showing through the lower part of the framework. You should actually be seeing the background grass in that area.
*There is a planter in the video directly in front of Hillary that should be at least partially visible in the photo if she was in the same position.
My conclusion is that the empty stage and flag background were shot and the people were pasted in separately. Their sizes and angles do not match each other and they do not match the background. Time wanted the shot and stills from the video were probably too poor, so it appears to me that they cobbled it together. Some manipulation of the background itself was done in an attempt to reconcile it to the lower angle from which the figures were shot. If it was just a wide angle lens issue, the lines would appear curved but they would still be consistent.
The video does show that Obama's hand was not over his heart during the singing of the Anthem, however, so Alien Fred is justified in making his case that the sky is indeed falling.
In my opinion, I'm 90% certain that while the incident did occur, the photo itself
is a fake.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp