Have you ever attended a speech or listened to a sermon or lecture and begin to drift from the message because you became aware of something else that catches your attention? I have unconscicousnly (sometimes) chosen to count "uhhh", "okay", "does that make sense?", "look", etc from speakers knowing full well after they stopped, I would have no clue as to what they were saying. There are also the non-verbals and gestures and pacing back and forth. One of the latest focuses of my astute observation of those who bug me when they speak is the current president.
We have had in the past, labeled our past presidents with gifts that have set them apart from others. Reagan was the "Great Communicator", Lincoln - the "Great Emancipator", Carter - the "Great Inflationist", Clinton - the "Impeached One" (A. Johnson holds that title too), Andrew Jackson as "Old Hickory", and John Tyler "His Accidency" to name a few. Some tout GW Bush as the "Great Protector" after substantial changes in homeland security. All presidents are known for something during their terms in office, even if it is for nothing (Millard Fillmore).
For the last year, Obama has been granted the title of wonderful and articulate - a brilliant orator. Duh. Not. Barrack Obama will make history as the "Great Reader of Telepromtors". If ever caught on the fly, this man stutters and stammers and cannot punctuate a sentence to save his grace. This crutch far outweighs his smoking habit which has successfully been kept under most media wraps.
Forget the red lights on the cameras to tell the speaker where to look - because he will not unless the prompter is just under it. I am not the only one that has noticed though. Apparently, the appearance of the president watching a tennis match during every speaking engagement has others documenting as well (Obama's Safety Net: The Telepromptor). Sometimes the tennis match is fast and furious. Sometimes the ball bounces around on one side too long - but the ball goes over the net with such frequency, I start counting and betting which side his speech will end on. I would offer a Las Vegas wager to the amount of time talking divided by the number of left versus right views he gives.
Here is a little excerpt from the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090305/pl_politico/19663
The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks. 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.
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.
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.
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.
President Obama gets high marks for his reading abilities and it is important to ensure the points come across without a hitch. But it is apparent his speech writers obviously do most of the work. I think it would benefit the executive branch to mandate Biden speak from one as well. He will be known as the "Great Gaffer".
