The President In The Mirror

WILLIAM A. JACOBSON MAR 5, 2009 3:47 PM

The Politico article (and AP Photo, right) “Obama’s safety net: the TelePrompter,” on how President Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his teleprompter, is quite disturbing.

The article reminded me of the Michael Jackson song, Man in the Mirror:

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make that change”

Please President Obama, change your ways. No more class warfare. No more talking down the markets. No more enemies list. No more Clinton war room tactics. No more Carville-Begala-Emanuel politics of personal destruction. No more Bush bashing. No more arrogance. No more insulting our allies. You can do it. Just drop the teleprompter. At least try.
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UPDATE: Now The New York Times is on the case, and the full and nauseating extent of Obama’s use of the teleprompter is becoming known for the first time. Among the interesting anecdotes, are the following instances when Obama used a teleprompter:

• “Mr. Obama uses them for routine announcements and even for the opening statement of his only news conference so far.”
• “He used them during a visit to a Caterpillar plant in Peoria, Ill.”
• “He used them to make brief remarks opening his “fiscal responsibility summit.””
• “He used them to discuss endangered species, even recalling a visit to national parks as an 11-year-old. “That was an experience I will never forget,” he said, reading from the teleprompter.”
• “After one speech, he was spotted in a tense exchange with an aide, a flash of temper a spokesman later attributed to a teleprompter malfunction.”

This is creepy, people. Sure, most Presidents use the teleprompter for major speeches. But did Obama need a teleprompter to remember that he once visited a national park?
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UPDATE No. 2: Good point from Newsbusters, that this isn’t new, just been covered up by the mainstream media until now:

This isn’t the only time the media has raised its eyebrow about the president’s TelePrompters (I even covered it myself not long ago), so the story isn’t a new one, but one little thing that Lee wrote reveals how the media goes out of its way to help Obama’s image by keeping the devices out of Obama’s photography.

His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face

In other words, the Old Media puts in a herculean effort to make sure The One still looks like he is speaking extemporaneously by working overtime to make sure those speech prompters are NOT in the picture.

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UPDATE No. 3: Obama mixes up teleprompter speeches, ends up thanking himself.
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UPDATE No. 4: Obama’s teleprompter has its own blog.

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