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It allows others on his staff to have input - to make their case as a speech is edited. Struggling over the precise formulations of a text clarifies a president's own thinking. The speechwriting process that puts glowing words on the teleprompter screen serves a number of purposes. This is the lasting contribution of Fred Barton and his teleprompter. Such leaders would not haven been improved by being "unplugged." When it comes to rhetoric, winging it is often shoddy and self-indulgent - practiced by politicians who hear Mozart in their own voices while others perceive random cymbals and kazoos. Churchill practiced to the point of memorization. Lincoln continually edited and revised his speeches. For this reason, the greatest leaders have taken great pains with rhetoric. And the discipline of writing - expressing ideas clearly and putting them in proper order - is essential to governing. It involves the careful sorting of ideas and priorities. Governing is a craft, not merely a talent. Those writers and commentators who prefer the unscripted, who use "rhetoric" as an epithet, who see the teleprompter as a linguistic push-up bra, do not understand the nature of presidential leadership or the importance of writing to the process of thought. It is the rare politician, such as Tony Blair, who speaks off the cuff in beautifully crafted paragraphs.īut it is a mistake to argue that the uncrafted is somehow more authentic. Ronald Reagan with a script was masterful during news conferences he caused much wincing and cringing. With a teleprompter, Obama can be ambitiously eloquent without it, he tends to be soberly professorial. It is true that there is often a distinction between a president on and off his script. This derision is based on the belief that the teleprompter exaggerates the gap between image and reality - that it involves a kind of deception.
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It turned out to be former President Herbert Hoover, who ended up using a teleprompter for his remarks at that year's Republican convention.įor politicians, the teleprompter has always been something of an embarrassing vice - the political equivalent of purchasing cigarettes, Haagen-Dazs and a Playboy at the convenience store. In 1952, Schlafly got a call from a man identified simply as the "Chief" who wanted a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria. Soon the device was used by Milton Berle and actors in various soap operas.
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So he conceived of a scrolling screen of typed text - an idea he shared with Irving Berlin Kahn (the composer's nephew) and Hub Schlafly at 20th Century Fox. As author Laurie Brown tells the story, Barton was having trouble memorizing the vast number of lines required for live television. If anyone is to blame for this technological dependence, it is probably Fred Barton, an actor from the 1950s. Then came Obama's use of the big-screen autocue at Tuesday night's news conference.Ĭoverage by Ron Fournier of the Associated Press began: "What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference?" A recent Politico story asserted, "President Barack Obama doesn't go anywhere without his teleprompter," calling it a "crutch." And in a popular new blog, Obama's teleprompter playfully chronicles its day. Kathleen Sebelius, at her nomination as head of Health and Human Services, was made to wait in awkward silence while Obama's teleprompter was adjusted. The issue gathered momentum when Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen read 20 seconds of Obama's teleprompter remarks at a White House ceremony before realizing his mistake. Barack Obama - called "the most eloquent political speaker of our time" - has become known as the teleprompter president. WASHINGTON - It is amazing how swiftly a presidential tendency turns from observation to joke to meme.