Debunking a RW meme: Shrub using a teleprompter

[rvablue]

Seems to be that the freeper set is trying to say President Obama can't speak without a teleprompter.

It's like malicously accusing him of using Air Force One or visiting Camp David or using a speechwriter.

My point being: all President's use it (since they've been around, anyway) while delivering a speech, whether it's at the White House, Congress, dinners, campaigns, out on the road, wherever!


So here are my discoveries of Shrub using a telepromter:







And this link goes to a description of him just before he went on TV to announce we were invading Iraq:

www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/03/21_groom.html


Please, add more as you find them. Anyone have better search suggestions than Google images which really doesn't narrow things down that well.

I think this could turn into a neat little debunking library as some DUers have been posting that their freeper co-workers, neighbors and family members have been chanting this freeper meme!

Have at it!


((edited to add: Eek! Just looked at my OP and I have to apologize for plastering this guy's face all over DU....but I think for these purposes it's worth it!))

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Ronald Reagan used a teleprompter.

[rateyes]

9. LOL

Good one. :D

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Even St. Ronnie of the Blessedly Incontinent Toilet used teleprompters.

I don't know why they get their underwear into such bundles over such meaningless shit.

Lots of public speakers, who aren't saying the same speech over and over, use teleprompters, if they're in a position to be rich enough to have them. The majority of other speakers use manuscripts, especially when it's official stuff and you want to make sure that you don't leave something out or want to ensure you don't screw something up in the telling.

Stupid freepers.

[Kalyke]

3. Yup

[empyreanisles]

4. I'd love to see their theories on how he handles press conferences

Oh yeah, let's see. They have a dynamic "answer-bank" with thousands of possible responses. Some aide nearby then beams the right one for him to say just in time to the teleprompter computer!

[AndyA]

5. Bush couldn't speak even WITH a teleprompter, so I don't get their point.

Are we supposed to forget the idiot in the White House from 2001-2008? The one who spoke of doctors making love to their patients? The one who couldn't pronounce everyday words properly, form a simple sentence, or speak without slurring words?

They have no room to criticize anyone else.

[rvablue]

7. I think your comment is exactly why the Freepers are pounding the drum on this one

they have to come up with some reason (however debunkable and disingeneous) as to why their beloved could not form a proper sentence or idea.

Obama is out there everyday answering any question there is cogently and fluidly. They are grasping at straws because frankly the difference between the two is utterly embarrassing.

[AndyA]

14. And how refreshing is it to have a President who is intelligent,

well versed, fair minded, curious to learn new things, and doesn't make you rush to the remote to change channels when you see his image or hear his voice?

There is no comparison between what we have and what we had. Separate planets, different galaxy. Thank goodness the dark years have ended, we just have to clean up their mess still.

[BOSSHOG]

6. Point of Order Please

freepers have been instructed by the leader of the republican party to feign outrage because Obama supposedly is using a teleprompter WHEN HE TAKES QUESTIONS so his staff can provide him answers (per the thrice divorced drug addict.) Per the unwashed and uneducated bush didn't need such help. They know their caca!! And bush's lack of assistance showed everytime.

[Clio the Leo]

8. What about this one.....

Back in his day, Lincoln was know as the "Telepromptanator!"

[rvablue]

10. Cute....I hadn't realized how historic the technology was...

who knew the teleprompter preceeded the telephone and the radio!

:rofl: :hi:

[TTUBatfan2008]

11. Didn't you get the memo?

It was invented prior to the wheel! :P

[Clio the Leo]

15. Oh, they had that before they had fire.

They had to INVENT fire so they could illuminate the teleprompters to see them. DUH!!!!

[Butch350]

12. There is nothing wrong with using a GD teleprompter.

It's all in the delivery baby - Obama may be reading from a teleprompter - but he sure can make those MF'en words flow like
poetry.

[rvablue]

13. I agree there is nothing wrong with it, as clearly stated in my OP! n/t

[rvablue]

16. Kicking this with more pics and b/c of another thread and so the weekend crowd can see

it and share it with all of their bigoted, moronic and irrational freeper friends, families, co-workers and neighbors that somehow have deluded themselves into thinking that a President or politician using a telepromter is something new under the sun!


Here are some pics of St. Ronnie:

Reagan before Congress with.....a TELEPROMPTER!


Reagan before Parliament with....A TELEPROMPTER!


Reagan before the Convention with... A TELEPROMPTER!


Reagan before a bunch of evangenlicals with...A TELEPROMPTER



President George H.W. Bush using...a TELEPROMPTER!




And here's the other guy who wanted to be President......USING A TELEPROMPTER!!!








And here is their nit-wit, know-nothing, grifting chosen one with....A TELEPROMPTER!





((Once again, my sincerest apologies for plastering these mugs all over DU, but I had to make my point!))

[rvablue]

17. I tried kicking this myself over the weekend. C'MON DU!!! KICK THIS SHIT TO THE TOP AND GREATEST!

You can't find me ever asking for the kicks and recs and greatest.

It's not who I am.

But I predicted this teleprompter shit was going to hit the MSM and tonight with Ed Henry's BS anaylysis and Andrea Greenspan's lame ass interview it has come up at least twice.

Get on this. Search the photo archives like I have. And let's get this out there. There have to be 100s of photos with other POTUSes using telepromters. Let's root them out and post them.

Is this a total BS meme? YES! IT IS! So let's put it to rest!

[4lbs]

18. It's not the tool, it's the person using it. Unless, of course, the person is a tool himself.

The thing that should really shock the M$M about all this teleprompter BS, is that Bush used the teleprompter quite a bit.... and still screwed up what he was saying!

[Political Tiger]

19. Papa Bush was a user too...

[Vinca]

20. For Bush, the teleprompter was just a prop

to distract from the electrodes and puppet strings.

[steven johnson]

21. Teleprompter Wars

In his last press conference, President Obama did what John McCain used to do during the campaign and read his text from a flat screen TV positioned directly below the straight-on camera.

Instead of being interpreted as getting his words exactly right, it is twisted into puppet theater with the president being manipulated by off-screen handlers because he's incompetent.

David Letterman did a segment called “Teleprompter vs. No Teleprompter” that showed video clips of Mr. Obama speaking eloquently and former President George W. Bush stumbling over his words. This is because very word a president utters is scrutinized and magnified and second-guessed.

Every president since Eisenhower has used a teleprompter and otherwise used prepared remarks, on briefing papers or note cards.

I prefer a president who can use the latest communications technology.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/why-does-obamas-telepromp_b_179288.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/tales-of-totus-the-presidents-teleprompter/


http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/03/one_last_point_about_telepromp.php

[Mike Daniels]

22. Apparently not an issue to many on FR either judging on responses

Yeah, there's page after page filled with articles about the teleprompter use but the responses to the posts are minimal (mostly less than 60 per thread).

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/teleprompter/index?tab=articles

The only ones who think this is an issue are the dead-enders as those who have brains know even their beloved Reagan used them repeatedly.

[hughee99]

23. What use is a teleprompter to someone who can't read?

It's just there for show in *'s pics.