As you may have noticed – the Guardian did – President Obama used a Teleprompter last night for the prepared remarks he delivered to open his press conference. If memory serves correctly, this is new – at least, I don’t believe President Bush ever tried to bring a Teleprompter to a press conference.
This site seems to agree that the arrival of the Teleprompter at press conferences is a new thing. Ann Althouse thinks the placement of the Teleprompters off to the side was distracting; were they trying to hide them?
UPDATE: The reporters’ names were on the script too, but not their faces:
Mr. Obama called reporters from a list on the podium, and reporters buzzed afterward about how he didn’t seem to know a single reporter he called on – at least in the front row.
“And let me go to Jennifer Loven at AP,” the president said, looking to his left, and then back a row or two before finding the AP reporter front and center, about eight feet from the podium. “Ah, there you are.”
“Caren Bohan of Reuters?” he said after finishing a long economics tutorial. He looked left and right before finding the red-headed reporter – right next to Miss Loven.
“All right. Chuck Todd. Where’s Chuck?” Mr. Obama said before finding the goateed reporter in the third row. “Ed Henry. Where’s Ed? CNN. There he is,” he said shortly after Mr. Henry stood up. “Major Garrett. Where is Major?” he said before finding the reporter back in the cheap seats.
While Mr. Obama didn’t call on [Ed] Schultz in the front row, he did skip giant national newspapers like USA Today and The Wall Street Journal in favor of [Sam Stein of] the Huffington Post, which didn’t disappoint.
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The president ticked through all the usual suspects, calling on the three wires and all five networks before hitting The Washington Post and New York Times, both of whom sent black reporters. The only other question from outside the box was from NPR.
“Mara Liasson?” the president said as he scanned the crowd.
Of course, expect this to be a typical Obama press roster: one question from Fox, which Obama and his team prefer to demonize, and otherwise a hit parade of liberals – NPR, CNN, the HuffPo, Reuters, Chuck Todd, and the AP’s famously biased Jennifer Loven. You’d think Obama would at least bother to memorize their faces before calling on them, to make it a little less obvious.
SECOND UPDATE: Ed Morrissey notes that Obama managed to misrepresent the Republican proposals and get his Japanese economic history backwards.
Crank, this teleprompter crack is unworthy of you. Bush had, at the very least, some form of reading disability. So he would have needed some kind of simple, phonetic “teleprompting.” So what you are saying in other words is, “Obama speaks with longer words, and no doubt, far better than Bush did.” Duh.
I mean, would it have been “better” if there were simply written notes to attend to?
You never watched a single Bush presser, did you Daryl?
Obama’s eloquence is his main, indeed only, qualification for the job. It is always worth pointing out that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
So lets see-Gerald Ford was an oaf because he tripped a couple of times going into Air Force One, Obama clunks his head against the helicopter door and nothing is said, George Bush tries to open a closed door in a foreign country and he is an idiot, Obama thinks a window is a door in his own White House and that is ignored and Reagan was an idiot because he started using teleprompters to give speeeches, while Obama is the most eloquent speaker ever when he is forced to use one at press conference in fromt of an adoring media.
Honetly people on the left, even if you won’t agree with us on policy, please be honest and admit that all the media does is attack Republicans and boost Dems. Can you at least admit that?
“You never watched a single Bush presser, did you Daryl?”
Which one? There were at least three…one even had other people in attendance…
“Obama’s eloquence is his main, indeed only, qualification for the job. It is always worth pointing out that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
At some point over the next 4-8 years, your lame harping on this point will cease to have meaning. Then what? Even Bush the Dolt now has experience at being President…
Which one? There were at least three…one even had other people in attendance…
Factually so far off the mark that you can’t even try to represent such ignorance as hyperbole.
At some point over the next 4-8 years, your lame harping on this point will cease to have meaning.
So you’re admitting that what you bought was not what you thought you were buying? What then did you buy? Nobody seems to be able to tell us 48%-ers what the appeal was. Without the eloquence, it seems your empty suit is wearing little else.
dch,
The country has a 2-party system (which is the main reason we’re Fu**ed). The appeal of Obama was he didn’t spout his support of Conservatism (i.e. a failed ideology). The 52%ers want to know why you support failed ideologies.