Fascinating article in the Friday NY Times about President Obama's use of the Teleprompter. Read this:
For Mr. Obama, a teleprompter means message discipline, sticking close to the intended words. While some presidents prefer extemporizing, Mr. Obama likes the message to be just so. After all, he is a best-selling author who has helped write a lot of his major speeches, so he presumably feels a certain fidelity to the crafted text.
Michael Waldman, who was President Bill Clinton's chief speechwriter, said Mr. Obama was one of the few politicians able to use a teleprompter effectively.
“If he were just reading something someone handed him and didn’t understand what it said, that would be one thing,” Mr. Waldman said. “But I don’t think anybody doubts that he’s expressing his own thoughts.”
What's interesting me me is that working with a Teleprompter is not an easy skill to master. And you might recall how, during the presidential campaign, Senator John McCain couldn't work with a Teleprompter at all.
Someday, perhaps, we'll read a story about the person who has to "drive" the Teleprompter for the speaker. Anchors on the network news drive their own Teleprompters with a switch on the desk or a foot pedal. Politicians can't do that so someone, off to the side, has to advance the copy for the speaker, perfectly in step with the speaker's cadence. It can be a very intimate -- and very nerve-wracking -- experience.
