I really don't think they want to go there: Republicans mock Obama’s teleprompter use

[n2doc]

By Philip Rucker, Published: October 18

It’s one of the very symbols of the presidency — the ultimate accessory to the ultimate bully pulpit, seemingly trumpeting to all that the words being uttered actually matter.

So why, on the campaign trail, has the teleprompter instead become a symbol of ineptitude, mocked repeatedly by Republican candidates?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-mock-obamas-teleprompter-use/2011/10/18/gIQA6hEivL_story.html?hpid=z5


I am quite sure that Obama could wipe the floor with any, and I mean any, of the repub candidates in a debate without teleprompters. Can you imagine Cain, or Perry or Romney, trying to think on their feet? And we certainly don't need to go into this....



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[phleshdef]

1. The teleprompter bullshit is desperation. Obama has proven time and time again...

...that he can speak off the cuff with ease and that he doesn't need to rely on any kind of aid if he doesn't want to. Pretty much all politicians give their prewritten speeches with teleprompters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But we've all seen President Obama do numerous debates and interviews with no teleprompter, where he has spelled out highly detailed, nuanced positions on every issue under the sun. He is sharper than their sharpest.

[wtmusic]

2. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with it."

Except that you're mouthing someone else's words that you haven't even taken the time to memorize. For all the public knows you might not even understand what you're talking about.

That inspires no confidence from me, regardless of who's doing the speaking.

[Ship of Fools]

3. I disagree. I think Obama has a big hand in writing his speeches.

In fact, he's been known to site and revise them ... Teleprompters do nothing more than act as a cue card, if the person speaking understands the issue(s) at hand. It frees them up to emote/act for emphasis in just the right places.

Just one woman's opinion.

[wtmusic]

11. I agree, I think he does.

IMO they would be more effective if he didn't use the prompter. And if he speaks enough so that he can't remeber what he's supposed to say, maybe he should just speak less.

Supply and demand - the words mean more.

One of the first rules of public speaking is you need to look your audience in the eyes. You can't do it when you're reading lines.

[phleshdef]

4. That possibility has nothing to do with using a teleprompter.

If you had a good memory, you could memorize someone else's words and still mouth them. Or you could use note cards.

On the flipside, if you are giving a very long speech, even if you wrote every word yourself, you may need an aid to remember what you said.

The public determines if a politician understand what he or she is talking about based on speeches, interviews and debates. 2 of those things don't entail using a teleprompter or any kind of aid at all. As I said, Obama has proven in interviews and debates that he does understand what he is talking about, regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with his positions.

I'll say it again. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. There is no "except". And if something as irrelevant to the important issues as whether or not a politician uses a teleprompter has any effect on how inspired you are, I'd say thats more of a problem with your own sense of inspiration and not so much a problem with the person giving the speech.

[wtmusic]

9. Feel free to say it as many times as you like.

It doesn't make your argument any stronger, it only demonstrates how full of yourself you are.

You seem to think that these aids are insignificant, but indeed they are not. Somehow the greatest speakers in history got by without teleprompters; somehow they also turned out to be the greatest leaders.

If you can't see a correlation there I can't help you.

[phleshdef]

10. Yea, I'm full of myself for defending something normal and acceptable.

And you are somehow not full of yourself for dwelling on something that has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the important issues or whether or not a person is able to inspire people.

Some of the greatest speakers in history gave speeches off the cuff. Some used note cards. Some used teleprompters. Some have done a mixture of all of the above. There is no rule about this shit, no matter how much you desperately want there to be. There is no correlation. Your premise is based on petty nonsense.

[wtmusic]

13. Ah, and you're the arbiter of "normal" and "acceptable".

And what has "absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the important issues" or "whether or not a person is able to inspire people".

I suppose I do demand a little more than your "Dancing with the Stars" standard of public speaking, but you should really review some video of great speeches and you might have a better understanding of what you're talking about, instead of cocksure babbling.

A primer on public speaking sans teleprompter. These speeches will live in history - Obama has yet to give one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3P6N9g-dQg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmiOEk59n8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE

[phleshdef]

16. LOL! I'd advise you to watch those speeches yourself as notes and index cards are clearly used..

What do you think MLK keeps looking down at on the podium? His thumbs twiddling around? Are you really so unobservant and unaware of what people are doing when they are speaking that you are unable to notice such a thing like that? He is CONSTANTLY looking down at the notes sitting on his podium that obviously contain the text of his speech. I can tell you numerous instances, right down to the second in that video, where he is looking down and referring to his speech transcription. But I shouldn't have to. Just watch the damn thing and you'll see him do it, over and over and over and over.

Of course, as I said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is what human beings do when they want to be sure to remember a lot of words. They have them written down somewhere, so they can refer to them.

And the FDR video is even more hilarious as you can actually see the papers he is holding in his hand. You can actually see him READING it all right off the podium. At the 1:20 mark, he even clearly shuffles onto the next page as he continues speaking.

Its also well known that Kennedy used index cards. I'm unable to ascertain how much he is using them for the particular speech that you posted. But he looks down to read about 5 times between the 1:20 and 1:30 mark. I'm sure I can find more examples, but thats adequate enough to make my point.

Of course all 3 men you are pointing out here were tremendous public speakers who wrote and delivered wonderful speeches. But just like Obama, they used aids to remember everything they had to say. Thats what happens when you have a lot to say and you want to say it right. For Obama, this is probably even more vital as his big speeches are often much, much longer than any of the speeches you just posted Youtube videos of. Obama can go 45 minute to an hour with some of the real big ones, like his race speech or his SOTU addresses. The only reason MLK, FDR and JFK didn't make use of a teleprompter is because it hadn't been invented yet.

But based on your bullshit standards, MLK, FDR and JFK were all uninspiring speech givers who operated on a "Dancing With the Stars" mentality. Your words, not mine.

I know your little world view, where real speeches are always given off the cuff and index cards and teleprompters are never used, must be crumbling down right about now. But I hope you've learned something if nothing else. Regardless, you really just defeated yourself in this argument. I didn't even have to try.

[phleshdef]

26. Well geez, its been a whole day. Care to refute or recant?

Otherwise, I'll just assume your silence means that you know you were mistaken.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AngkorWot]

24. Um, it's the equivalent of using note cards.

It's a little more convenient.

[wtmusic]

27. Convenience has nothing to do with it.

It's a costly apparatus which is designed to give your audience the impression you're looking at them, when you're not.

It's designed to give your audience the impression that you have your message down cold, when you may or may not.

Since (like another poster here) you seem to have fallen victim to the contemporary perception that sterile perfection is acceptable as a substitute for passion, I present to you a speech which has more soul in it than all of Obama's speeches put together - Jesse Jackson's moving speech to the 1988 Democratic Convention. Note cards, no teleprompter. I don't know for sure, but I'd bet Jackson penned every word himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MHZBbkFiog

[DCKit]

6. No kidding. One (two?) of the best, most rousing speeches I've ever seen him give...

were when he decided to go off-script and simply say exactly what he thought of a situation and where we needed to go.

Nearly all the current Republic contenders would be reduced to a sobbing, sloppy mess if they had to go one-on-one with OUR President. I'll be watching for that transmitter bump (W's* speechifying/debating salvation) from here on out.

[aponi]

5. they are confused

face it, they're not used to a POTUS who can read

[DCKit]

7. Meow!

Welcome to DU!

[AleksS]

8. My fave is Gov. Rick Scott reading an Obama-teleprompter joke

My fave is republic Gov. Rick Scott reading an Obama-teleprompter joke....FROM A TELEPROMPTER!

Clueless. Just clueless.

[gratuitous]

14. They're still on their teleprompter kick?

Some of these things just don't die, do they? Every now and again, something comes up (this teleprompter nontroversy being one of them) that you can't believe anyone is trying to turn into an "issue." Even when it doesn't go anywhere, it keeps coming back, like a bad comedian whose "clever" joke bombs.

I remember the story from either Sidney Blumenthal's or George Stephanopoulos' memoir about Bill Clinton doing his state of the union address. It was his second or third one, and they had been prepping all month for it. When the day came, the guy loading the speech into the teleprompter mistakenly loaded the prior year's speech, which dutifully began scrolling by on the screen. Clinton recognized right away that something was wrong, and ignored the teleprompter, giving the speech he'd prepared from memory. In the control room, panic reigned for about four or five minutes before the wrong speech was unloaded, the right one loaded, and they caught up to Clinton, who was doing a masterful job. Nobody noticed.

Just for fun, imagine if the same thing had happend to the Dim Son.

[surrealAmerican]

15. Who was the last President NOT to use a teleprompter?

This is a total non-issue, really. Before Presidents used teleprompters, they had their speeches written out on paper in front of them.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. teleprompters = high tech 3 x 5 index cards

[JoePhilly]

18. They've got nothing else. Their party is totally hollow.

[TlalocW]

19. You guys are missing the bigger picture here

And what it is is that republicans don't know what a teleprompter is. Someone, somewhere, made a comment like, "Obama sure likes to use a teleprompter," and some right-wingers overheard it and figured it was some sort of Kenyan/Radical Muslim/Communist sex toy or something. So this right-wing meme is never going to go away because it would be nearly impossible to get them to believe what a teleprompter really is.

TlalocW

[JHB]

20. So they're condemning Ronald Reagan?

Saint Ronnie was the first president who was noted for using a teleprompter (at the time, some foreign observers didn't know their purpose, and thought they might be bulletproof glass security shields or something).

This is like the "czar" thing. If you're actually up in arms about it, all it shows is that you haven't been paying attention to public affairs for a quarter century or more.

[mistertrickster]

21. It's pure RepubliCON . . . it's what they do: ridicule and demean common practice

if a Dem does it. Completely ignore it or justify it if a CON does it.

IOKIYAR.

On edit--it's how they put Seigleman behind bars for doing exactly what every other Gov. -- Repub or Dem --has done and will do.

[JNinWB]

22. I think that (all) Presidents use teleprompters or notes for major speeches...

because the possibility of going "off script" and causing an international, or financial, emergency is too high with a more informal presentation.

[Johonny]

23. those are speech aids from God

Those are communications from God. God just happens to communicate through 1) burning bushes 2) writings on your hand 3) projected computer screens. You can tell difference between a teleprompter and a God communication device by knowing the party of the speaker.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

25. Hypocrites don't care (n/m)

[spanone]

28. stirring up the same old worn out bullshit.....they have nothing