You know, the Gettysburg Address was scripted too. True fact. Lincoln didn’t just improvise it out of his ass.
And if you read post 19 I wasn’t happy about that either.
He was just in Cleveland last Friday and he killed the whole day in a meet-and-greet tour of Ohio. He’s got the State of the Union Address today. It seems like he spends a fair amount of time making public appearances.
You don’t seem to understand the meaning of “off the cuff”
Why is this even an issue at all? There isn’t a single person who speaks to a press scrum, a television camera, or a board of directors whose speech hasn’t been prepared beforehand, and whether they speak from a memorized script, 3x5 cards, or OMG TELEPROMPTER!, it’s still all canned. If you’re shocked by this, then wait 'til I tell you about water!
Actually, I think I do.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=off
But, etymology apart, if you have been scheduled to talk to a group of people, without making any notes (whether on your shirt sleeves or on a teleprompter), you’ll spend some time thinking about what you will say and organising your thoughts. Experienced public speakers (like the President of the US, whoever he is) prepare for their speeches one way one another, even if you don’t see the preparation.
golf clap
No, I don’t think so.
Etymology apart, we elected Obama because he is smart enough to think on his feet. I like the guy, but c’mon, dubwa could have pulled that one off. I’m chalking it up to B having a bad day, but you got to admit that it wasn’t his finest moment.
What!? Did I read that right? The president making public appearances? Goddamnit, that’s the last straw … let’s get 'im, boys!
Kind of what I was going to say. Christ, politics aside, we have the most eloquent, articulate extemporaneous speaker as president in my memory (Lyndon Johnson is the first president I remember actually hearing), and he’s being heckled for using a teleprompter?
Man, I give up, I frikkin’ give up.
Don’t knee jerk, Jack. Even Jon Stewart made fun of him for this one.
**Magiver **is clutching his pearls over the president making public appearances, and I’m the one that’s knee-jerk. Gotcha.
Saw this on TDS and yes, it looked a little odd to be using teleprompters in the close quarters of a classroom. It’s not worth frothing at the mouth about, but it was not a good photo op either.
Yep.
No idea why the first black president who many people have convinced themselves is an Al Qaeda manchurian candidate born in Kenya who happens to live in a country with a radical right wing echo chamber would worry about speaking freely and feels every word out of his mouth has to be carefully guarded.
None a’tall. No idea why abused wives like to use their forearms to protect their faces either. Pussies.
I didn’t realize he was speaking at Tea Bagger Elementary, Wesley Clark. 
How many do you know who got 400% more death threats than any president before them?
How many had to live in a country where a corporate media parroted rumors that the president is a terrorist sympathizer?
Openly talking about murdering the president barely gets people’s attention anymore.
So yes, he uses a teleprompter. It is because the radical right wing (which has a terrorist wing, witness their killing of abortion doctors) will use every word he says against him and to inflame those domestic terrorists.
Obama probably uses a teleprompter because the right wing is trying to inflame domestic terrorism and will use anything they can to encourage that.
He can’t talk ‘off the cuff’ when there are tens of thousands of armed people who want to kill him.
Okay. I’m a little lost.
I gave Magiver a friendly chiding over his announcing his chagrin over the president making public appearances … much as every president we’ve ever had has done. How does that make me knee-jerk? Because I chided in this thread?
Whoops. I read waaayy to much into your post. My apologies.
You don’t need to cite all the crazy things people say about Obama, but I am pretty sure that statistic was debunked.
They can use prepared remarks just as well as they can use spontaneous remarks, and he does do question and answer sessions with the public and the press.
The guy was a university professor for a while, so there’s no real dispute he knows how to put a speech or a lecture together. He chooses not to because of potential political damage, which IS kind of silly. But I don’t hold him solely responsible: that’s what political theater has evolved or devolved to.
Pople have noticed that the story was debunked, haven’t they? Obama didn’t use a teleprompter to talk to the kids, he used it for the press scrum afterwards, which is what all Presidents always do.