Meet The President (Well, Sort Of)

Both the local press & the city council have suddenly gone silent about a hoped-for Obama visit to the city next month (I hope Cllr Steve Rotheram, the city's Lord Mayor, is taking the opportunity to read up on American history after blurting out the ignorant nostrum that the entire continent's history owes much to the port of Liverpool).
However, there is a possible Plan B for the local politicos. Stuart Jeffries reported in the Guardian's G2 section last week about the phenomenal popularity of life-sized Obama cut-outs (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/barack-obama-cutout ): "Politicos who can't get face time with the real Obama can pose for photo-ops with the cardboard version (see the picture of a grinning Ruth Kelly sucking up to an Obama cutout who seems to be saying, 'Who is this woman?')."
It would be ideal for Redmond, Storey, Bradley, et al, in the absence of Obama himself & then have the pictures published in the Echo to give the impression that our civic un-worthies actually met the US President.