Photo credits: KRTPPHOTOS/NEWSCOM
Jimmy Orr has the word over at the Christian Science Monitor. Some of us knew as far back as the Democratic primary it was a media-created myth that Barack Obama was a gifted orator, either at a stadium-filled campaign rally reading from his teleprompter or at a debate where Hillary ran circles around him while he repeatedly stammered, “uh, um, what she said was right.”
So now Obama’s faithful teleprompter has taken on a life of its own. Orr writes:
As you probably know, President Obama is taking a lot of ribbing over his use of a teleprompter. And we’re guessing Jay Leno is going to bring it up tonight.
But it’s fair game. Come on, he used one at a rodeo!
Oops
You heard about the teleprompter snafu that happened a couple days ago at the White House?
Well, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen got up to speak following President Obama’s remarks and the new script wasn’t loaded into the teleprompter.
No matter to Cowen, he just started giving President Obama’s remarks.
“We begin by welcoming today a strong friend of the United States,” Cowen began welcoming himself.
About 20 seconds later he realized he was giving the wrong speech. You can read the whole story here.
Creativity
All this attention has resulted in creative ways to further lampoon the president’s dependency on the machine.
Like this. His teleprompter has apparently started its own website.
Barack Obama’s Teleprompter Blog was launched a couple days ago. Like any good website, it’s mission statement is prominently displayed:
“Reflections from the hard drive that enables the voice of the leader of the free world.”
Sure, a bit wordy for a machine whose whole goal is helping someone speak well. But you get the message.
St. Patrick’s Day snafu
He blogs about everything. On the problem with the Irish PM’s speech, the teleprompter laments:
Well, last night didn’t go well. What can I say? I was tired. By the time Barack and the Irish PM stood up, the President and I had already done two major policy speeches, three nomination announcements, and light dinner banter for a table of twelve.
Tonight Show
On the trip to California, the teleprompter gives us a preview:
I’ll be heading out to LA for the Jay Leno appearance. This will be fun; I haven’t done Hollywood since that Streisand fundraiser last summer. Back then, it was just warmed over stump material that Alec Baldwin was lip-synching along to, but tomorrow night the stakes are higher. It’s all new material.
Next week
As you may have heard, President Obama will be giving a prime time address next week. The teleprompter tells us that the communications staff is pushing for the president to deliver the speech without the machine.
Are they insane? With this rabid press corps constantly looking to pin Him down for every … detail about obscure legislation like the TARP funding? Or the economic stimulus bill? All that kind of detail can’t be fit on little note cards. Or even 5×7s.
The teleprompter is not taking this sitting down. “Believe me, this is going to be a knock down, drag out fight worth monitoring over the weekend,” he writes.
But if the blog entries are too 2008 for you, you can also follow the teleprompter on Twitter. Although he appears to have two accounts — here and here.
On the Teleprompter One account, we learn some family history on the machine:
The current room temperature is 68 degrees - My father was a Swiss army knife so I have plenty of Options
And on BOTeleprompter (which is sadly far less active), we find out that the president will use his trusty machine tonight:
Waiting for my boss’s jokes to get loaded for Leno!
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Hey, we’re not as cool as the president’s teleprompter but why don’t you follow us on Twitter anyway?
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