No Bull Mom

Obama's Supposed Eloquence

Below is an article from Politico about Obama's use of a Teleprompter:

Obama's safety net: the TelePrompter
By CAROL E. LEE 3/5/09 1:04 PM EST

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.”

It's funny. I have long thought Obama was eloquent -- too eloquent. As in, something's not quite right here. There was no question he won an election based on his eloquence. He looks and sounds wonderful. If there's one thing he's proven, it's that people are gullible. His worldview is so radical that his own supporters didn't realize how radical he was; they were too busy being mesmerized by his looks and speech. What they didn't know was that he was simply reading.

Even a first-grader can read.