www.jeffthefish.com

I don’t normally write about politics, because I don’t actually know anything about politics. But I do know that people read prepared statements at press conferences. Someone on Facebook posted a link to this article with the comment, “Who really is President? I can’t stand that our ‘leader’ can’t even talk without help. I really HOPE America is happy with what they got in Obama[.]”

Um…huh.

The article is about the fact that Obama used a teleprompter at last night’s press conference. And…? Who cares? People who say things on television use teleprompters. People who gives speeches and statements read them off of a paper or a screen. Who the fuck cares? Does he honestly think Bush wrote his own speeches?

But it actually kind of gets worse. The article seems to criticize Obama for being careful. What??

What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference?

A careful one.

Ooh, burn.

It’s an interesting dichotomy: Obama came before the nation to sell one of the most expensive and politically risky agendas ever offered by a U.S. president, but his language was heavy with caution. A hard-willed plan given a soft sell.

How exactly is this a dichotomy? You’re doing something risky. So you want to be careful. Don’t we want him to be careful? Is caution a bad thing now?

Served up opportunities to lead with his heart, Obama was cerebral. Cool and calming in a time of white-hot public anger.

Isn’t this a good thing? Do we really want to return to the days of “bring it on”, “need some wood?” and “is our children learning?”? < –weird punctuation (srz)

Now, when I first started reading the article, I got the impression that Obama took questions from the press and read answers off of the teleprompter. But then I read this, halfway down the article: “The teleprompter was no help during the question-and-answer session (reporters don’t signal their intentions), but Obama was no less careful during that give and take.”

OK, so he read a prepared statement from a teleprompter. Then he answered questions from the press, the answers to which came from his head and were carefully considered.

What exactly is the problem?

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UPDATE

I just became friends with Barack Obama’s Teleprompter on Facebook.

Stumble it!

Posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 in Category Funs. Please comment, ok?