Here’s a fun game. Out of the following Obama statements over the last 4 years, can you guess which ones were made with the aid of a teleprompter?
“When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
“I don’t know what the term is in Austrian.”
“It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them…”
“The private sector is doing just fine.”
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes… and I see many of them in the audience here today…”
“The Cambridge police acted stupidly.”
“I’ve now been in 57 states, I think? One left to go.”
“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”
“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”
Did you get the answer right? All of those statements, and many more like them, were made when Obama either didn’t have his teleprompter or went off his scripted remarks. Those words came directly out of his big smart intelligent brain that is brilliant.
That’s why the following story from The Hill is great news for fans of Obama’s self-revealing gaffes:
President Obama is weaning himself off his teleprompter.
At recent campaign events in Pennsylvania, Virginia and again Monday in Ohio, Obama spoke to crowds in high school gymnasiums and at crowded outdoor events without his teleprompter, instead using written notes.
The difference is dramatic. Instead of turning in his characteristic manner from right to left and back again, reading from the two sloping, clear-plastic planes of his teleprompter, Obama has glanced down at pages in a binder on his podium.
Team Obama thinks the switch, or partial switch — the president is not giving up the teleprompter entirely — will help him better connect with voters.
He’s connecting with voters just fine. That’s why they don’t like him.
Just 16 weeks until Election Day, David Axelrod. Bring on the unscripted moments!