Obama's teleprompter

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I'm a libertarian, so I'm as far from Obama's politics as you can imagine. And yet as an undiagnosed Aspie I'm sympthetic to him on this issue. Here's Chris Matthews whining that Obama can't live without his teleprompter. Yet how many of us can string words together properly in an off-the-cuff appearance?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY7PDpLiJwE[/youtube]

Does this intolerance of communication aids mean that we'll never have an Aspie President?

His teleprompter is a moot point now because he's always off on vacation anymore. I wish he'd take a trip to the Bermuda triangle. I hear it's nice this time of year.

People just see Obama as very fake and his dependence on his teleprompter(the TOTUS) for every minute appearance is just a small part it. Obama is very very controlled with his image, it's almost Putin-esqe(we really don't need any more shirtless pictures of either of them).

Um... the teleprompter is not a new invention, and politicians from both parties have been using it for decades. It's just a random meaningless grievance that right-wingers bring up against Obama because the fact-checking necessary to come up with substantive objections to his policies is apparently too difficult for them.

Whoever writes his stuff and however dependent upon that he might be, I get a kick out of his mindlessly saying the credit cards companies *even* raise interest rates *even* when you pay your bills on time!

Are you kidding? Bush spent more time "clearing brush" on his ranch, than he spent time in the White House!

And as a side note - you know why Bush spent all his time clearing brush on that so called ranch of his? It's because he's afraid of horses.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I think the problem that people are having with it is the fact that he reads it so emotionlessly. The great speakers of the past (Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, to name three) were so great because they put so much emotion into what they said. People could tell that they really believed.

Many aspies can certainly put emotion into their words, even if it doesn't come naturally. I've studied the way people react to certain ways words are used, tones of voice and whatnot, and I believe I could be a fairly good speaker.

I would like to see more presidents writing their own speeches. When was the last time we had one that did that on a regular basis?

Were you born yesterday? Almost nobody gives speeches "off the cuff" - at best they practice them for months and commit them to memory, but usually (especially if you speak often and engage topical issues) they use notecards or "teleprompters".

LET ME GIVE YOU A QUOTE FROM "THE ELEMENTS OF GREAT PUBLIC SPEAKING" BY J. LYMAN MACLNNIS. It was published in 2006.



Beginning of Chapter 5.

WHY ARE RIGHTWINGERS AND RIGHT-LIBERTARIANS SO IGNORANT OF ACTUAL PUBLIC SPEAKING?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g2-mtYwN8A&p=CB5A36B92274F885&playnext=1&index=1[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8MvUjadge0[/youtube]

I don't think people have a problem with him using a teleprompter for big speeches but he brings it basically everywhere he goes. It's just a disconnect. People already see him as an empty suit. Maybe in Canada, Barack isn't on tv as much as he is here but he really does bring them to every public appearance. You can't really deny it hasn't been one of the more visible aspects of the Obama presidency can you? Even Chris "I got a tingle down my leg" Matthews thinks it's bad for his image.

Chris Mathews also acted like a schoolboy when he saw Bush in full fighter pilot attire, so I think it's safe to say he's an image man and also something of a hypocrite as he reads most of his statements off a teleprompter.

Aside from that, most Presidents read prepared remarks and the only difference is that Obama's reading them off a screen. A teleprompter is, as a matter of fact, a little harder than paper to read off.

As for the OP's point about what'll happen to Aspies with the bias against communication aids, I have one counter-point.

Assuming people are consistent (i.e. they blast the notecards, speech books, or other prepared statements that various Presidents have used in the past), it might actually help a subset of Aspies - those with Eidetic memory. This is because they will be able to memorize a precisely worded speeche with less worry of making "off the cuff" mix-up if prepared material is absent. Of course, the immense interpersonal challenges will problem remain a nearly iron-clad barrier before one can even consider the nitpicking over communication aids.

Last edited by Master_Pedant on 03 Sep 2010, 9:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

It has been one of the more visible aspects of his presidency because the right is obsessed with it and has been talking about it constantly for the past two years. Bush also used a teleprompter, but he still couldn't form a coherent sentence because he's an illiterate dolt.

why dont they just interview the teleprompter? why the need for a live puppet at all?

the answer to that will tell you why an 'aspie' president is unlikely

It's not like Obama runs the country single-handedly, anyway. He has an army of experts to do the real thinking. And the real speech-writing. Every President for as long as I can remember has been little more than a pretty figurehead for hidden powers. We might as well elect Charlie McCarthy.