Quote:
Originally Posted by scaeagles
I'm not a Palin disciple, but mocking Obama for his reliance on teleprompters is open to anyone who writes notes on their hand or not. The man sets up teleprompters when he speaks to elementary school kids.
|
I used to wince a bit when Obama would speak off the cuff and use a LOT of "umm" and "uh" pauses. But the teleprompter talking point? Sorry, but that boat isn't gonna float anymore.
1) Every president since the invention of the teleprompter has used them at nearly every one of their televised speeches.
2) He doesn't set them up himself, though that's an amusing image.
3) The school incident was a little silly, and I doubt it has happened again, though you are welcome to prove me wrong on this one. It's still a pretty big "so what," but I'll give you partial credit. However ...
4) Did you SEE him when he had the open question session with Republicans, live, a few weeks ago? No teleprompter. No script. You may have disagreed with him and found his every answer evil, but you can't claim he was helpless and floundering. He was on fire. And FOX News made themselves look like scared ninnies by cutting off before it was done. Anyway, whatever the political import or content of that encounter, it proved decisively that Obama is not somehow pathetically dependent on teleprompters. Game over.
Y'know, Sarah Palin used a teleprompter when she gave her much-praised speech as she accepted her nomination. She used it all the time on the campaign trail, as did McCain. Nobody cares, because this is standard practice. The first time I heard the McCain campaign using this as a talking point, I thought they had to be joking. It made them sound desperate, as if they knew they didn't have anything of substance to use against their opponent. (And SURELY they did, yes?) I suppose they keep on tossing this out because their base laps it up, but you aren't going to get any mileage out of it around anyone who has been paying any attention.