Some local viewers of MSNBC’s televised Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton got a bit of a shock.

Although the studio was in Cleveland, the red and blue backdrop behind the candidates was dominated by a vision of the Gateway Arch.

In reply to a query from yours truly, a spokeswoman for MSNBC
confirmed in an email this afternoon that the backdrop “is a landscape of U.S. landmarks — I think the Arch is just especially visible.”

Check out the view yourself:

The Arch looms above, while much of downtown St. Louis seems to be in the backdrop below