Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Scout26 on March 06, 2009, 10:50:06 PM
-
Boy, the MSM is like Gomer Pyle.....
SURPRISE !! SURPRISE !! SURPRISE !!
Methinks the honeymoon is starting to fade......
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090305/pl_politico/19663
Obama's safety net: the TelePrompter
by Carol E. Lee – Thu Mar 5, 1:04 pm ET
President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.
The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks.
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.
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 such luck.
His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face. And it is a startling sight to see such sleek, modern technology set against the mahogany doors and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the East Room or the marble columns of the Grand Foyer.
“It’s just something presidents haven’t done,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December 1975. “It’s jarring to the eye. In a way, it stands in the middle between the audience and the president because his eye is on the teleprompter.”
Just how much of a crutch the teleprompter has become for Obama was on sharp display during his latest commerce secretary announcement. The president spoke from a teleprompter in the ornate Indian Treaty Room for a few minutes. Then Gov. Gary Locke stepped to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper for reference.
The president’s teleprompter also elicited some uncomfortable laughter after he announced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Health and Human Services secretary. “Kathy,” Obama said, turning the podium over to Sebelius, who waited at the microphone for an awkward few seconds while the teleprompters were lowered to the floor and the television cameras rolled.
Obama has relied on a teleprompter through even the shortest announcements and when repeating the same lines on his economic stimulus plan that he's been saying for months — whereas past presidents have mostly worked off of notes on the podium except during major speeches, such as the State of the Union.
Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for George W. Bush, said while it’s entirely a matter of personal style, using a teleprompter at these smaller events has its drawbacks.
“It removes you from the audience in the room,” Fleischer said. When speaking from notes, Fleischer said, the president can pick up his head and make eye contact with those in the audience, as opposed to focusing on the teleprompter to his left and right.
Bush, Fleischer added, “would use the teleprompter for his major big events, but when he would travel around the country or do events, he would almost always work off of large index cards.”
The White House says Obama’s point of reference is insignificant.
"Whether one uses note cards or a teleprompter, the American people are a lot more concerned about the plans relayed than the method of delivery. This is not always true of the media," said Bill Burton, deputy press secretary.
Obama has never tried to hide his use of a teleprompter. It was a mainstay during the final months of his campaign. He brought it to county fairs and campaign rallies alike — and once had it set up in the ring at a rodeo.
In a break from his routine, Obama did not use a teleprompter during his pre-Inauguration speech at a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio — and his delivery seemed to suffer. He paused too long at parts. He accentuated the wrong words. And overall he sounded hesitant and halting as he spoke from the prepared remarks on the podium.
As president, the stakes in what he says are higher. Governing is not campaigning, and, as a former first-term senator, Obama has not held a previous elected position where his words carried even close to this level of influence.
“In this kind of environment, you don’t want to make mistakes — on the economy you’re talking about doing things that affect the markets,” Kumar said.
But be it extra precaution, style or a mental crutch, Obama has shown in the past that he needs the teleprompter. And while he still has his prepared remarks placed on the podium in a leather folder, the White House has shown no sign of trying to wean him off of it.
Before Obama entered a room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Wednesday to announce his crackdown on defense contracts, a CNN reporter asked an Obama aide if the teleprompter could be moved further away from the podium or lowered. The answer was an unequivocal ‘no.’
“He uses them to death,” a television crewmember who also covered the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said of the teleprompter. “The problem is, he never looks at you. He’s looking left, right, left, right — not at the camera. It’s almost like he’s not making eye contact with the American people.”
Wednesday’s event posed another scenario photographers and television crews have to work around. Obama had five others join him at the announcement, including Sen. John McCain. The takeaway shot was of Obama and McCain. But the teleprompter on Obama’s left was almost directly in front of McCain.
“You couldn’t get a good angle on him with McCain,” said a White House photographer who also covered Bush. “So if there’s someone else important in the frame, it’s hard to get a shot without the teleprompter.”
-
It has been noted that he indeed becomes the Wizard of Uhs without those.
-
And if you look really, really closely, you see a giant arm that is inserted... well... you know...
Fun part is that he can make sounds, and you don't even see the puppeteer's lips move.
-
It has been noted that he indeed becomes the Wizard of Uhs without those.
OMG, I fell out of my chair at that and had to claw my way back up.
Soda on the bezel of my nice pretty new monitor and everything. That was good.
Did you make that up?
-
I watched some of the inaguration replay with a liberal friend of mine. He went on and on about how Obama is 'so pimp' because he memorizes all his speeches. He was pretty upset when I burst his bubble that those small opague screens are actually telling him what to say.
Obama was (and is) all about illusion to the mass populace.
-
Let me remind you all that Bush was known to use his fair share of "uhs" and even make up words when he was operating off the cuff.
You guys are slipping into the exact same derangement syndrome that the liberals have been guilty of for the last 8 years.
I'm moving this to the politics forum, too. The frothing can stay over there.
-
Let me remind you all that Bush was known to use his fair share of "uhs" and even make up words when he was operating off the cuff.
As will most people without a prepared speech. What counts is doing it with enough confidence that people notice the message rather than the fillers.
-
Let me remind you all that Bush was known to use his fair share of "uhs" and even make up words when he was operating off the cuff.
You guys are slipping into the exact same derangement syndrome that the liberals have been guilty of for the last 8 years.
I'm moving this to the politics forum, too. The frothing can stay over there.
:rolleyes:
Name one person who ever said Bush was a great speaker. From the very beginning, he was bad and no one expected great things when he spoke. Not so with you-know-who. That's how he made his name. From the DNC speech in 04 up through the campaign, he was the next great orator. There's no derangement when you make it known that the guy that is supposedly known for his oratory skills speaks like a nervous high school kid in front of the class without his teleprompter.
-
I don't recall anyone saying that Bush was a particularly good public speaker.
However, I have heard plenty of people claim that Obama is an excellent speaker. That he constantly needs to use TelePrompters is only stating that part of what makes him seem to be such an excellent speaker is the use of said TelePrompters. That's okay--maybe he's too busy to bother memorizing long speeches.
Dannyboy beat me to the punch. Oh, well.
-
Let me remind you all that Bush was known to use his fair share of "uhs" and even make up words when he was operating off the cuff.
You guys are slipping into the exact same derangement syndrome that the liberals have been guilty of for the last 8 years.
I'm moving this to the politics forum, too. The frothing can stay over there.
Bush was a total fumblemouth, but even he admitted that. He was modest.
What gets me is, as others have said, the "great orator" is by no means a Daniel Webster. He is posing and using the teleprompter as a crutch.
-
My point being, that when it was pointed out by them during Bush's reign, we complained about their inability to focus on issues.
-
Let me remind you all that Bush was known to use his fair share of "uhs" and even make up words when he was operating off the cuff.
How long will an ex-president be used to point out how bad the president in office is? Is it that hard to move on? Face it we went from bad to worse.
-
How long will an ex-president be used to point out how bad the president in office is? Is it that hard to move on? Face it we went from bad to worse.
I never disagreed with that point. Just saying that the level of Obama Derangement Syndrome rivals that found over the last 8 years on sites like DU.
-
Face it we went from bad to worse.
No, no. We went from bad to "Please put me in cryo, and thaw me out when he's gone."
-
No, no. We went from bad to "Please put me in cryo, and thaw me out when he's gone."
And Fistful wins the thread....
-
A Teleprompter, the way obama uses it, is the same as a hand in the back of a ventriloquist dummy...
Makes one wonder whose hand is in there? =|
Nuff Said.
-
No no... fistful NEVER wins. He is made of fail: even when he's right, he's wrong!
-
It is natural to look for ways to poke fun at the guy you didn't vote for. I don't care about that as long as we don't take it too far.
I think the other part is that we all heard at least some people comment about Obama being such a better speaker than Bush. Maybe on average, he isn't. What else does Obama have going for him?
-
What else does Obama have going for him?
He just might be able to kill Bin Laden without his party complaining about it.
He's able to use the Patriot Act without his party complaining about it.
He can bomb the enemy without his party complaining about it.
If he wanted to, he could be a great President without his party complaining about it.
I could remember when people were calling Bill "the best republican president ever"
I doubt President Teleprompter is up to it.
-
The story here isn't that Obama is lost without a teleprompter. Anyone who watched him last year knows that. The story is that someone in the press is now paying attention to that fact.
Too bad it's not the NY Times or WA Post. Won't happen, though. It would de-deify him.
-
A Teleprompter, the way obama uses it, is the same as a hand in the back of a ventriloquist dummy...
Makes one wonder whose hand is in there? =|
Nuff Said.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.soros.org%2Fabout%2Fbios%2Fa_soros%2Fimages%2Fimage_150x150&hash=6029ed808028faab437106e0b2648ba745ecd05c)
-
No, no, no. It's the Holy Spirit, obviously. Remember, all
scripture of Obama's utterance is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
-
My point being, that when it was pointed out by them during Bush's reign, we complained about their inability to focus on issues.
Who is "we?"
GWB was inarticulate on his best days.
-
No, no, no. It's the Holy Spirit, obviously. Remember, all scripture of Obama's utterance is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
That is just bad. Next you are going to start talking about him dividing asunder.
-
I never disagreed with that point. Just saying that the level of Obama Derangement Syndrome rivals that found over the last 8 years on sites like DU.
Wow, we're gonna need some links to backup that claim. =D
-
I never disagreed with that point. Just saying that the level of Obama Derangement Syndrome rivals that found over the last 8 years on sites like DU.
Your premise is flawed. We're not attacking BHO simply because he fumbles words. We're attacking the lie that he is one of the best speaking presidents we've ever had, when he clearly is as far from a good speaker as one can be without a crutch.
-
Which is an exercise in futility. This story is a slight of hand by the media, whether intentional or not. If this was 3-card monty, you'd have all just lost $20.
-
It's not the teleprompter we need to worry about, it's who is really writing "the script."
-
It's not the teleprompter we need to worry about, it's who is really writing "the script."
Which is exactly what "the left" was saying about "Bush" during his "administration".
-
Which is an exercise in futility. This story is a slight of hand by the media, whether intentional or not. If this was 3-card monty, you'd have all just lost $20.
Not quite. Part of the reason Obama is so effective as a politician is that he has an aura of "unstopability" about him. Nobody thinks they can go head to head with him politically and come out on top. The sooner we can tarnish that image, then better off we'll all be. Part of that process involves putting to rest the notion that Obama is some sort of great orator. He isn't anything of the sort, he' just an empty suit who's good at reading what's on the screen.
-
Which is exactly what "the left" was saying about "Bush" during his "administration".
And they were right.
Left and Right have become obsolete terms except among a small subset of people who have more ideas than power.
-
It's not the teleprompter we need to worry about, it's who is really writing "the script."
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.soros.org%2Fabout%2Fbios%2Fa_soros%2Fimages%2Fimage_150x150&hash=6029ed808028faab437106e0b2648ba745ecd05c)
-
Which is exactly what "the left" was saying about "Bush" during his "administration".
And they were right.
-
I would be very happy if some hacker would give him a Ron Burgandy incident. :)
-
I would be very happy if some hacker would give him a Ron Burgandy incident. :)
That would be pretty funny, "Good night American and $^#* you."
-
That would be pretty funny, "Good night American and $^#* you."
He already went Ron Burgundy back in San Francisco, remember? Stay classy clingy, Pennsylvania.
-
i think some ludicrous lyrics might be more fun, where's my money ho!!! :laugh:
-
NSFW
LANGUAGE WARNING.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZTUIUkYp8s
In case anybody is lost on the Ron Burgundy thing.
-
Not quite. Part of the reason Obama is so effective as a politician is that he has an aura of "unstopability" about him. Nobody thinks they can go head to head with him politically and come out on top. The sooner we can tarnish that image, then better off we'll all be. Part of that process involves putting to rest the notion that Obama is some sort of great orator. He isn't anything of the sort, he' just an empty suit who's good at reading what's on the screen.
Helps to explain hollywood's and the TV Press' love of him, must be like looking into a mirror.
-
Helps to explain hollywood's and the TV Press' love of him, must be like looking into a mirror.
I find it amusingly apt that many of the true ACTORS, the ones who could be handed a script and go improv on the spot with a powerful stage presence (Kelsey Grammar, etc)...tend to be conservatives.
-
A Teleprompter, the way obama uses it, is the same as a hand in the back of a ventriloquist dummy...
Makes one wonder whose hand is in there?
Could it be.... (https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi6.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy233%2Fbtgoober%2Fposted%2520pix%2FReaper.jpg&hash=387657dd2f5542904c7f92fdc22b62f6ec321603)
-
Who knew Max Headroom would come back as a black guy?
-
Who that is? The guy in the picture, I mean. Max I dimly remember from my childhood (I'm a '76.)
-
Nah... Max had more autonomy... :laugh:
-
The pic I posted is of Ray Wise who does an excellent job of playing The Devil on "Reaper".
-
Who that is? The guy in the picture, I mean. Max I dimly remember from my childhood (I'm a '76.)
The box set is very worth getting. Great cyberpunk.