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Obama Switches Off TelePrompTer (Gutsy Call!)
The Hill ^ | Tuesday, July 17, 2012 | Amy Parnes

Posted on 07/17/2012 8:49:21 AM PDT by kristinn

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.

Critics have mocked Obama’s routine use of the teleprompter, including in speeches to schoolchildren. And the new use of written notes appears intended to trade away the smooth, distant demeanor of teleprompter rhetoric for a little more immediacy and vigor. A senior administration official acknowledged the shift in the president’s style, saying Obama is speaking “more extemporaneously.”

But the senior official said the lack of teleprompters has “less to do with image and more to do with upping the tempo” at campaign events, while creating more unscripted moments.

Not using a teleprompter lets Obama be more spontaneous on the stump. Since making the shift, the president at times has ad-libbed remarks while playing off his supporters’ reactions, something that had been difficult with a teleprompter.

“It’s become a crutch,” Tobe Berkovitz, a professor of communications at Boston University who specializes in political communications, said in describing Obama’s use of the teleprompter.

“It seemed as though he couldn’t go anywhere without them, and it made him seem unconfident and robotic in dealing with real people out there,” Berkovitz said.

Until recently, Obama was rarely seen without the two transparent panels at his side...

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama; teleprompter
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To: Doogle
...he's going back to his "roots"...street talk, babble, "wanna buy a watch"....routine
21 posted on 07/17/2012 9:05:42 AM PDT by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Sybeck1

We’ll know when he does?


22 posted on 07/17/2012 9:09:03 AM PDT by faithhopecharity
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To: Doogle
..."I forgot what Social Security card I used"...."somebody pay my rent"...."what does a BC look like anyway?"...."anybody seen Moochell, she's gotta cash this for me"...."can I get you coffee?"
23 posted on 07/17/2012 9:11:03 AM PDT by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: DTogo

I’ve noticed lately that he’s sounding more like Hugo Chavaz.


24 posted on 07/17/2012 9:11:05 AM PDT by donhunt (Certified and proud "Son of a Bitch".)
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To: kristinn
Gotta give him credit. He is VERY inspirational when he tells us how he really feels instead of what his handlers tell him to say.

I'm still thinking about his "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Nothing inspires me quite like a president who says that during election season.

25 posted on 07/17/2012 9:15:18 AM PDT by GBA (To understand what is happening to America and why, read The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn)
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To: kristinn

““It seemed as though he couldn’t go anywhere without them, and it made him seem unconfident and robotic in dealing with real people out there,” Berkovitz said.”

Ya think? Obama hasn’t had an original thought since he popped out of ole Stanley.


26 posted on 07/17/2012 9:16:20 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: kristinn

‘Resist we much!’


27 posted on 07/17/2012 9:29:16 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: kristinn

Why am I picturing the commercial where the mop stalks the woman who has switched to a different brand, only in this case it’s a teleprompter peering after Barrack?

Come back! Why won’t you love me, Obama?


28 posted on 07/17/2012 9:32:41 AM PDT by Rinnwald
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To: kristinn

The man can’t think on his feet. You see it all the time.


29 posted on 07/17/2012 9:33:09 AM PDT by fhayek
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To: kristinn
Turning off his teleprompter? What courage!

Washington never did that in 1792. Lincoln never did that in 1864. FDR never did that in 1936. Truman never did that in 1948.

If only JFK's ghostwriter were still around to add another chapter to the book Profiles in Courage.

30 posted on 07/17/2012 9:34:11 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: kristinn

He either has some new technology that allows him to be coached OR he doesn’t give a damn anymore. My guess is the latter. His asinine remarks about business owners is the evidence.


31 posted on 07/17/2012 9:38:21 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: Doogle
I've noticed he's been droppin’ more g’s lately. I thought it was just a case of generatin’ more street cred, but it's really because he don't got that ‘prompter no more.
32 posted on 07/17/2012 9:39:21 AM PDT by chimera
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To: chimera
That's the first thing I noticed during the ten seconds I was able to stomach watching his Cincinnati speech.
33 posted on 07/17/2012 9:46:28 AM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: kristinn

Recently didn’t he switch the teleprompter off while speaking to a group of “soccer moms” and said “You didn’ have that baby ~ somebody else did”.


34 posted on 07/17/2012 9:46:53 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: kristinn; basil; txhurl; lormand; wolfcreek
This P0$ is coming to San Antonio and Austin for fundraisers today. I hope the Austin liberals are happy when he closes down traffic for several hours during rush hour today and costs the taxpayers a lot of $$$$$s in police overtime.

I'd go protest his liberal @$$, but have to work this afternoon. Believe it or not, moveon.org is protesting his visit here today. I guess he is not liberal enough for them.

35 posted on 07/17/2012 9:47:23 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (It's time to take out the trash in DC.)
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To: MissMagnolia

Love it because now we get words of ‘wisdom’ like this: “If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”


You left out the ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah......


36 posted on 07/17/2012 10:09:02 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike (Resurrect the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)...before there is no America!)
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To: Arrowhead1952

We’ve made a note to stay at home in Lakeway today. There’s no way I’d want to be in that traffic, and I don’t won’t to see his face, period.


37 posted on 07/17/2012 10:10:51 AM PDT by basil (Second Amendment Sisters.org)
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To: kristinn

The B.O. “Uh” count with David Letterman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThEAO0lt4Dw


38 posted on 07/17/2012 10:12:06 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: kristinn

I had a feeling he was starting to go off prompter more lately, given his increasingly ridiculous statements (”you got a business? you didn’t make that, someone else did!...etc.).


39 posted on 07/17/2012 10:18:45 AM PDT by KingOfVagabonds
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To: Sybeck1
Interestingly enough, when you listened to him talk during the weekend speeches discussed here, he sounds like a jive-talk’n crackhead... and makes about as much sense.
40 posted on 07/17/2012 10:20:37 AM PDT by RedEyeJack
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