Obama on Teleprompter – UPDATED

Last month I got a steaming hot email from a reader, or someone, excoriating me for suggesting that Barack Obama is lost without the teleprompter.

I was told that my assertion was my “parroting” of talk radio (I only listen to talk radio in the car, and not always then), and that I was “hateful” and “full of hate” and so forth.

And today, we see that Barack Obama has begun dragging the teleprompter with him to the rodeo because he cannot be trusted to speak extemporaneously before these small local crowds, where you’re supposed to be able to do that, or at least to keep on script with the aid of a discreet notecard.

Can you imagine – just imagine – what the press and the Dems would be saying, how they’d be mocking, if Bush (or McCain or Palin) had to take a teleprompter to the rodeo? I can hear it now! “How can he lead the country if he can’t manage a small-town gathering?” “He’s an idiot!” “He’s a moron!” “The Dems are the SMART party!” You know…pretty much what they say every election. But more.

Today reader Lynda wrote, “and he tried to mock McCain for not being able to use email?”

Well, to be fair, I think they’re different things, actually. Emailing is simply a mechanical monkey-see, monkey-do. Even “I” can do email, and I am nothing but a trained monkey when it comes to computers. (No kidding, you should see the step-by-step list my son had to write for me to do podcasting.) Speaking off-the-cuff, before a crowd of people, without stumbling, without going off script, without betraying things (if you’re trying to hide them) is much, much more difficult.

I think Obama is stressed and he can’t be trusted to keep his tone and his message together, coherent and safe, and that’s why he needs the prompter. But that does raise the question, can this guy keep it together under stress?

Rick at Brutally Honest asks, will he need a teleprompter when he meets with heads of state? He suggests Obama is “lost” without the prompter.

Something tells me Mac & PC will be discussing the teleprompter pretty soon.

Suitably Flip grades Obama’s statement paper on the economy. Cute.

UPDATE: Because a commenter apparently wanted to see it, here is Sarah Palin speaking yesterday in Golden, CO (where Obama is today). Speaking. Apparently without a teleprompter – but perhaps with one; a commenter below thinks there was one available.

Thomas Lifson, unusually snarky

Slightly O/T but Patrick O’ Hannigan determines that McCain and Palin are made of sterner, and perhaps more stable stuff than Obama.