« Our Logo-Happy President | Main | Hope I'm Not Paying for This »
March 05, 2009
Shock: Obama Needs His 'Prompter
Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.Shouldn't a president who is supposedly famous for his oratory be better at speaking extemporaneously? As the story notes, his inability to make a speech without the technology means he's constantly looking to his sides, not directly at the camera, and by extension the American people. And again, the double-standard is jarring. Obama has made some pretty ridiculous statements when he's not on prompter. Yet we don't see Slate or other members of the media creating sites to track and mock "Obama-isms."Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual – not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events large and small.
After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no luck.
On that note, it's really too bad the late-night comics or SNL can't find anything funny about Obama.
Posted by slublog at March 5, 2009 05:50 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4094
Comments
Skippy the Wonder Poodle and his lovely bride Klingon Security Officer Mash-Hell, have proven to be everything we feared the Clinton’s would be but somehow fell short. Could we have found a bigger pair of rubes to run this nation? In a land of 300+ million people, these two are the best we could do.
Skip can’t utter a word that isn’t pre-written and slapped in front of his face and his life-partner has the diplomatic skills of Mammy Yokem.
Can’t wait for them to have Queen Liz over – hope she brings her own soap and towels.
Posted by: Murph at March 6, 2009 08:02 AM
Hard to give a speech when you can't read what your handlers have written for you to say.
Posted by: Glenn at March 25, 2009 04:38 PM