TOTUS is back!

[Gaspar]

President Obama has been off-prompter for most of July and it has resulted in some problems.


Last night, in his speech before the Urban League, everyone was quite pleased to see that TOTUS is back.

[TulsaRufnex]

Yawn.

How Sean Hannity Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Teleprompters
http://gawker.com/5901344/how-sean-hannity-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-teleprompters

In the clip above—taken from the same interview I published earlier this week, in which Romney rhapsodized about his Austrian Warmbloods and Missouri Foxtrotters—Romney and Hannity talk about how important it is for politicians to use teleprompters while they attack Obama for using a teleprompter. "It does make some sense," Romney says. "It keeps you from saying something you don't mean, you get the message out."

"Yeah, of course it does," Hannity concurs. "It's smart. You don't want to make a mistake. I'll tell you, they're out to eviscerate anybody who makes a mistake."

Enough With the Obama Teleprompter Jokes Already
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/enough-with-the-obama-teleprompter-jokes-already/253038/

The teleprompter jokes aren't particularly funny at this point, and beyond that suggest a GOP mindset that could be counter-productive. It's reflected in Romney's constant allusions to Obama as "in over his head" and Sarah Palin's sarcastic implication that he is an "idiot." Do Republicans want to lull themselves into thinking Obama is an incompetent who can't speak coherently or win a debate without a teleprompter? He probably hopes they do. It never hurts to be misunderestimated, as George W. Bush famously put it.

Hmmm.  I'm with uppityhebrew on this one:  "The teleprompter is a right-wing talking point because it plays to their racist views that blacks are intellectually inferior. This is GOP code 101."

[carltonplace]

Yet another diversion attempt. If your candidate is on a trip around the world to prove his foreign affairs accumen and makes you cringe point the other way. "Don't look over there! quick look over here!" 

[TulsaRufnex]

When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?
http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/index2.html

"What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior can you begin to piece together [his actions]?" -- Newt Gingrich
"If we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely." -- Michelle Bachmann
"[Obama] grew up in a privileged way. He never had to really work for anything; he never had to go through what Americans are going through."  -- Rick Perry
"I'm ready for the gotcha questions...and when they ask me who is the president of Uzbeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I'm gonna say, you know, I don't know."  -- Herman Cain

But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy ­errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he's a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action ­phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) "the only place in the world where it doesn't matter who your parents were or where you came from."

We used to say "You're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts." Now we are all entitled to our own facts, and conservative media use this right to immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information.

[AquaMan]

Thats really a good quote (in blue). Was that Frum?

[Ed W]

Frankly, the Republicans are probably relieved that this guy uses a teleprompter.  Otherwise, he'd flip-flop a couple of times in the same speech.

[Red Arrow]

Frankly, the Republicans are probably relieved that this guy uses a teleprompter.  Otherwise, he'd flip-flop a couple of times in the same speech.

If he were a Democrat it would be called continual evolving.

[Hoss]

If he were a Democrat it would be called continual evolving.

Anything that infers 'evolution' for Republicans makes them cringe.  Unlike most forward thinkers.

[Ed W]

If he were a Democrat it would be called continual evolving.

Remember this guy, Red?  When he didn't have a teleprompter, everyone cringed.  So the solution was to have him assimilated to the Borg collective use technology to bridge the gap.



The teleprompter 'controversy' is just another fabricated story from the pearl-clutchers on the right.

[Red Arrow]

Remember this guy, Red?  When he didn't have a teleprompter, everyone cringed.  So the solution was to have him assimilated to the Borg collective use technology to bridge the gap.



The teleprompter 'controversy' is just another fabricated story from the pearl-clutchers on the right.

Democrats cringed whenever he spoke.  Had nothing to do with a teleprompter. 

I don't care that Prez Obama uses a teleprompter.  Most presidential speeches have been written by speech writers, not the President, for a long time.  Do you think you could speak for 15 or 20 minutes without notes to remind you.  I can't. (I even had a public speaking class in high school.  I think it was a PA requirement but it may have been local.)  Now try that with words someone else has written for you.  You will (hopefully) have an advantage in that your writer wrote something matching your opinions etc.   

[Red Arrow]

Anything that infers 'evolution' for Republicans makes them cringe.  Unlike most forward thinkers.

In the non-political world, evolution implies forward.  In the world of politics, evolution can be in any direction.  Democrats are taking advantage of that confusion to sound as though they are always proceeding forward.  Very clever but misleading.

[Hoss]

In the non-political world, evolution implies forward.  In the world of politics, evolution can be in any direction.  Democrats are taking advantage of that confusion to sound as though they are always proceeding forward.  Very clever but misleading.

As opposed to the Tea Party, who NEVER want to sound like they're progressing forward.

[Red Arrow]

As opposed to the Tea Party, who NEVER want to sound like they're progressing forward.

Forward is in the eye of the beholder.  I don't see much forward from either party, just a bit less backward.  Before you answer.... neither party is less less backward than the other.  We aren't getting good solutions from either party.

[Hoss]

Forward is in the eye of the beholder.  I don't see much forward from either party, just a bit less backward.  Before you answer.... neither party is less less backward than the other.  We aren't getting good solutions from either party.

Something we agree on at the moment...

[nathanm]

Forward is in the eye of the beholder.  I don't see much forward from either party, just a bit less backward.  Before you answer.... neither party is less less backward than the other.  We aren't getting good solutions from either party.

I'll agree with that. Better a not good solution than no solution, though.

Seriously, though, I would be all for a couple of parties that were not beholden to their wealthy donors. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court saw fit to make it impossible to keep money out of politics.