The meme going around like a bad cold is that President Obama relies "too much" on teleprompters. A line so oft repeated it's officially reached the point of late-nite pop culture status.
What makes this kind of nontroversial attack slick is that, different from easily proved instances of excessive use like "too much" Old Spice, the "too much" teleprompter tag is, of course, an empty accusation. There's no universally accepted measure for the appropriate amount of political telepromptering, which makes it difficult to do the practical math.
Difficult but not impossible.
The most accurate way to measure the president's teleprompteriness is by comparison of his first 66 days in office with those of his immediate predecessor. Reviewing archived video on C-SPAN and exempting such must-have prompter moments as their inaugural and State of the Union addresses, the empirical evidence is that compared to President Bush, President Obama is indeed teleprompter-dependent. Jan. 23rd, 2001: Bush unveils his education plan -- no teleprompter; Feb. 26th, 2001: Bush addresses the Nation's Governors -- no teleprompter; March 19th, 2001: Bush addresses the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce -- no teleprompter.
A sampling, but you get the picture.
However...
Not being teleprompter-dependent isn't the same as being prompter-independent. As to be expected, in those addresses and others President Bush read from prepared text. No big deal and not much different than reading prepared text from a teleprompter. For those who have never actually used one, a teleprompter isn't some kind of science-is-magic communication genie. Merely having words projected before you does not give one the ability to speak those words with additional weight or emotion.
Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby Jindal.
So, maybe the better comparison isn't how much time a president spends reading from a prompter -- any prompter -- but how much time he spends speaking to a national audience extemporaneously. Thus far, President Obama has held as many solo press conferences as former President Bush over a similar time period -- two. Bush's having been on February 22nd, 2001 and March 29th, 2001. However, both of President Obama's press conferences have been during prime time with more viewers watching him work without a net. Bush didn't hold his first prime-timer until October 11th, 2001. President Obama has also held town hall meetings in Elkhart, IN, Fort Myers, FL, two in California, in addition to appearing prompter-free (for better or worse) on the Tonight Show as well as holding a virtual town hall meeting on the internet.
All that is to say: compared to President Bush, President Obama is actually more likely to do "too little" telepromptering during "too many" Q&A sessions before "too many" people.
And while phrases may deceive, numbers don't lie.
For more insight please visit That Minority Thing.com
My Fellow Americana I am Your President George,
Bush and tonite I will speak to you about my,
budget proposol.......
I've even posted responses such as "If you dislike liberal [progressive, Democratic, etc.] people and viewpoints so much, why do you spend so much time on HuffPo?"
Don't you think they'd be concerned about catching liberal cooties?
I wonder if the wingnuts have been kicked off right-wing playgrounds and come over here because they have nowhere else to play. Maybe they're lonely.
"Liberal cooties"! bugabuga I find that to be true as well. They know their comments on the rightwing sites are just more of the same slime so, come over here to get some type of outrage. I try to ignore their poison as soon as I start to read it. Someone, please please tell me why these people are so d@mn angry all the time? They were pi$$ed when they were in the majority and running things, they're pi$$ed now because they have no clue what's going on. They have no idea how to work with anyone other than in their own party even if the idea is totally stupid. I wonder why they don't just get it that by working alongside us, everyone would benefit. Knowing us liberal, progressive lefties..we would welcome them..even while we were watching our backs when they patted it..gotta watch those knives no matter how small! lol
You deal with one subject at a time if you can.
He likes to make eye contact and he doesn't have 4 hours a day to memorize speeches. Get over it.
strategERY!
I just don't get the point of this criticism.
I also recall the awkward teleprompter challenged john mccain who I couldn't bare to watch read from either a paper or prompter as he squirmed and squinted without inflection and would stumble on a word and would astonishingly restart the sentence from the beginning.
The right-wing is so hatefully and childishly jealous of their new President. Obama educates while he speaks while Republicans have no dynamic and engaging matchup of their own.
This is why Rush Limbaugh has such clout and leads their Party of fools.
Obama is the leader of the free world. Teleprompt it up, buddy. As long as you're solving problems.
Personally, i am loving it. I am loving every minute of it. When the only thing you guys can complain about is "teleprompter" then the president is doing a great job under the circumstances.
Look at it this way, we could have been asking SarahPalin to dig us out of this ditch.
Oh, the thought and the horror!
How is this even a controversy?
Then again with the silliness that consumes us every time there is a crisis in this country, i can't say i am surprised.
08' wasn't about "credentials". You must have been asleep the entire year.
Are we even on the same page or is it that he is proving the wing-nuts talking points, that you are now echoing, WRONG?
BTW, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharton were laughed off the stage with their credentials too.
WTF is the issue?
I'm also tired of the mainstream media throwing hissyfits because Obama is open to talking to alternate media and average citizens, instead of bowing and scraping before the MSM filter. I was delighted to hear that Obama decided spending spring break with his family was more important than attending the Gridiron dinner. Thank God we were spared the MSM's reviewing of Obama's "performance" there.
Obama's too busy doing a tough, complicated job to waste time on the Frivolous Style Review Issue of the Week.
Pres. Obama is being measured by a higher bar by the same people who didn't seem to own one when the idiot-in-chief was in office. Either that or he measured so low they didn't dare open their mouths.
Thanks John for your take on this. Actually it's much ado about nothing, but we know how these right wingers are - they push, shove, lie, distort, misinform, disinform, hoping their 30% kool aiders follow them blindly.
I am more worried about the democrats in congress than about some playground tactics played on the president. Congressional dems are scary, wimpy, dodgy. More focus need to be played on them.