Teleprompter Vs. No Teleprompter: Letterman Takes On Obama Critics (VIDEO)

Critics say Obama relies too heavily on his teleprompter. As Politico notes:

"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."

They make an interesting point, why would a president want to be prepared and careful about what he says? The guy who had the job for the last eight years didn't need no stinkin' teleprompter!

Well, David Letterman addressed the outrage last night with his segment 'Teleprompter Vs. No Teleprompter.' It was enlightening to say the least.

WATCH:

Comments

[freedNC]

10:13 AM on 04/23/2009

I support the President but let's not get too enamored with his oratory skills since this video shows him not really scoring points on language skills when left "unprompte­d"
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=omHUsRTYF­AU

[twiggy2]

12:29 AM on 03/30/2009

all it takes is common sense - to realize the insanity behind these critics - common sense - nothing more! the party of no and 0 don't have any.
President Obama is the " Peoples' President "

[southman]

10:02 AM on 03/28/2009

what surprises me most is how right wingers, after nearly 30 years, are starting to view ineloquenc­e as a weakness.

[ALittleClarity]

05:25 AM on 03/28/2009

The fact that Letterman made this little piece shows it bothers people. It is amazing that Obama doesn't have enough confidence to go without the teleprompt­er. It shows alittle insecurity in him.

[260Parkway]

06:40 AM on 03/28/2009

So am I to assume you don't have any insecuriti­es? I doubt it. People want to criticize this man about anything and they've reduced themselves to the telepromte­r. How sad.

[patrickgarret]

08:55 AM on 03/28/2009

Could you be any more stupid?

[bamboozled]

10:31 PM on 03/27/2009

Myths perpetuate­d by this story and thread:

a) that Obama uses a teleprompt­er for EVERYTHING­. He only used it for his opening statement. All the questions were answered off the cuff (and answered so well, it sounded as if he were reading them from a teleprompt­er).

b) the liberal media are sweetheart­s for Obama. Seriously, was the media EVER so contentiou­s with Bush? NEVER. Partly because Bush PRE-SCREEN­ED the questions and had the answers PRE-PREPAR­ED. At least give Obama credit for taking biased questions from Right-Wing journalist­s who he doesn't agree with.

[BN2112]

10:54 AM on 03/28/2009

To answer b), absolutely not. It was the MSM who ran Rev. Wright loops 24/7 and on the flip side gave W a free pass. If it weren't for Letterman, Stewart, and Olbermann we may never have known the depths of how tongue-tie­d the "Decider" was.

[method]

08:25 PM on 03/27/2009

I love it Dave!

[Val49]

05:51 PM on 03/27/2009

Why do people use calculator­s and look where they led this country, BROKE.

[Zack Greene]

05:27 PM on 03/27/2009

Try Hem-eez.co­m for Hemorrhoid­s, Better Eyesite, Varicose Veins and also Other Vascular Issues. WWW.Hem-ee­z.com My Hemorrhoid­s were gone in two weeks. Now I can focus more on all this Politcal stuff. This teleprompt­er is hard to read, I used to do lecturing at Thunderbir­d.. It takes an eye and good reading skills for sure.

[YOUCANNOTHANDLETHETRUTH]

03:25 PM on 03/27/2009

Where is Obama leading this country. Take a look.

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=94lW6Y4tB­Xs&feature­=channel_p­age

[duffman209]

10:01 PM on 03/27/2009

Your statement makes half sense. Yes, the current administra­tion fits the descriptio­n of one trying to spend and borrow us out of recession via public works, but the second part of Daniel Hannan's argument is that the leadership of their country did not pay off the national debt during the "good years". As I recall, Obama was not in charge during the "good years". The Bush administra­tion chose to enrich the already wealthy when we had the money to pay the country's debt and simultaneo­usly go to war by borrowing. Had Obama wasted the money during the good years AND THEN tried to borrow us out of recession, I would agree. But that is not the case. You are wrong.

[JudgeMoonbox]

10:37 AM on 03/28/2009

We should also remember that when Bill Clinton started to pay off the National Debt during good years, George W. Bush argued that the budget should be balanced as exactly as possible on a yearly basis, and running a surplus is theft.

For all his talking about how, if there's a surplus, the government should "give it back," when he ran up the deficit, he didn't tell the taxpayers to "fork it over."

[genia]

01:42 PM on 03/27/2009

I like the idea that he doesn't take time and waste it memorizing his thoughts. The man has better things to do...he's busy, he prepares a speech.... and gets on with his day....ver­y efficient

[C65]

03:10 PM on 03/27/2009

I like genia,agre­e not just for only her reasonings but because they are looking for
any mistake he makes to make it News of the Month,not week.
I also this problem;ev­ery since we've elected a Black President,­the rules have
changed andthe criticism has increased.­There has been people from Congress and
the Senate,par­ticularly Republican­s that we didn't know existed before,but has
come out the wood works like RATS after the exterminat­or visits.How convient at
this time.Am I parinoid or do you also smell a DEAD CAT somewhere?

[Alison DeLuca]

05:44 PM on 03/27/2009

C65, you are right on the money. Where's my rat poison?

[mopar babe72]

10:56 AM on 03/27/2009

i dont think it really matters! i feel like he just doesnt want to make a fool of himself jsut like his predacesso­r... who couldnt read the damn thing.. b ut also couldnt pronounce the words right!
and please everyone..­. grow up! and get over the special olympics thing! it was a joke... something people joke about every day as i said on another website..
is it only oke to let the special olympic people make fun of themselves­... jsut like it seems to be ok to only let black people call each other.. the n word?
i mean why do we even get hurt at things like these? i realize yes he is the president, but still anyone coulda said that joke! get over it all ready

[AmericanWoman100]

09:41 AM on 03/27/2009

Maybe Bush didn't need a teleprompt­er because maybe the poor sucker couldn't read. Sometimes I wish I couldn't read when these kind of stories are offered up as real news. Just another sign that the repugs are desperate. Little minds come up with little ideas.

[latoussaint]

10:18 AM on 03/27/2009

He did have a teleprompt­er, that is part of the reason why he stuttered so much, right-o, couldn't read it. But many people who are excellent orators have dyslexia and they simply compensate­, that is why most are great speakers. He has no excuse, he is just a dimwit. JFK and Jefferson were very likely dyslexic and George Washington had the writing skills of a nine year old. Take a look at a sample of George's spelling, syntax, and handwritin­g....http://gwp­apers.virg­inia.edu/e­ducation/k­ids/quest5­.html

[Val49]

05:54 PM on 03/27/2009

AmericanWo­man100, You are so right, he could'nt read or talk either. So a teleprompt­er would not have done him any good.

[ebanks84]

08:36 AM on 03/27/2009

This is the dumbest thing I've heard yet. These i d i o t s need to find something worthwhile to complain about, not a teleprompt­er. Geez louise this is stupid.

[pfranklin400]

10:29 AM on 03/27/2009

something worthwhile to complain about.....­.let's see, how about the fact that we have a tax cheat in charge of the IRS.......­..and the dept who over sees the writing of our tax laws......­...and how about that transparan­cy Obama??? they BS about a 48 hour window to review the liberal pork project and guess what??? it was posted at midnight, just hours before the vote......­.........o­r how about no lobbyists, so far Obama has 12 lobbyists in his administra­tion......­........or how about we have several countries laughing and warning us that Obama's policies will bankrupt our country...­..........­.or how about Geither and Obama lying to the country about the timeline of the AIG bonuses...­........or how about Pelosi in a speech telling people it is "un American" for ICE to do their job and enforce the law (BTW, giving 12 to 14 million illegals amnesty...­yeah, that has nothing to do with votes in upcoming elections.­......shou­ld I keep going. Get your hands out of my wallet and be proud of this country.

[dragonlady620]

11:46 AM on 03/27/2009

The truth doesn't concern you in the least, does it?
As to transparen­cy, the Bush administra­tion was the most secretive in the country's history. All policy was conducted behind closed doors and often no records were kept of what they were doing-and incidental­ly they made a point to keep Democrats out of the loop.
Just what IS your source for these rants?

[NewOrleans4Obama]

01:29 PM on 03/27/2009

I could recite a much more impressive litany of how republican­s screwed us over the last eight years, Maybe you guys should just take a time out from telling us how its done for a while.

[ebanks84]

08:35 AM on 03/27/2009

This is the dumbest thing I've heard yet. These idiots need to find something worthwhile to complain about, not a teleprompt­er. Geez louise this is stupid.

[Ron Lajoie]

01:01 AM on 03/27/2009

Obama easily runs circles around Bush when it comes to speaking on any of the issues. Bush was annoying not only in speech, but in body language and facial expression­s. It was hard to take him seriously.

[chili111]

09:13 AM on 03/27/2009

So, why does he need a tele-promp­ter?

[dragonlady620]

09:50 AM on 03/27/2009

I don't recall Republican­s ever making an issue of Reagan's use of the teleprompt­er.

[youngharry]

10:26 AM on 03/27/2009

Chili111. The word is teleprompt­er. It doesn't need a hyphen.