Obama Talks to His TelePrompter

The nation is well aware of the President’s teleprompter dependence. Its been the source of many jokes, embarrassing moments and defensiveness on the part of his ardent supporters. One of those embarrassing moments happened on Monday when he found himself out of sync with his teleprompter. Read about it and see the video of the incident below.

Obama Talks to His TelePrompter

Addictions are hard to hide. People always try to hide them, but they are rarely, if ever, successful at it. Thus it the problem Barack Obama has with his teleprompter addiction. When the public became aware of his over use of multiple teleprompters and it became a source of jokes, the Obama handlers started trying to hide the ever present Presidential TelePrompter. The tool that is credited with the President’s world renowned eloquence, was relegated to the background as much as possible. It was no longer featured in photos of the President’s speeches and was strategically placed so that it can be most easily overlooked.

Its hard not to notice Obama’s dependence on the teleprompters. He took 12 of them with him on his recent trip to Europe. He uses them at every speech. He even uses them at ‘townhall’ meetings and press briefings. They are even used in the most casual and informal places in which the President is expected to speak. With this much use, there’s bound to be errors and slips along the way.

That is what happened on Monday when Obama gave a speech at the National Academy of Sciences. He was given a warm reception by the audience. Then, as he spoke, he got ahead of himself … or ahead of the teleprompter or visa versa. He was laying out his plan for the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He started naming the members of the council when he apparently remembered that he’d already introduced them earlier in his speech.

“In addition to John – sorry, the – I just noticed I jumped the gun here,” Obama said, pausing for several seconds as he looked at the prompter. “Go ahead. Move it up. I had already introduced all you guys.”

It kind of reminds you of the time he gave the Irish Prime Minister’s speech (including thanking himself for being there). The difference being that at least this time he seemed to notice he was repeating himself whereas that time, he did the whole speech before realizing he was giving the wrong speech.

His gaff on Monday prompted an awkward few moments while Obama told the teleprompter to ‘Go ahead. Move it up.’ Apparently, his faithful teleprompter caught up and the President was able to continue once he and his faithful friend were once again in sync.

The audience laughed quietly, uncomfortably, while the leader of the free world waited for his words to be electronically fed to him.

I suppose, all is well that ends well. Or is it?

Here’s the video …