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2009-03-06 06:17:02
Carol E. Lee Carol E. Lee Thu Mar 5, 1:04 pm ET
President Barack Obama doesn t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.
The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president s prepared remarks
follow him wherever he speaks.
Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in
the White House s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a
manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They
traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol
Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute
prepared remarks.
Obama s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual not only because he is famous
for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently
and at so many events, large and small.
After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama
delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was
training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no
such luck.
His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and
photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new
Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face.
And it is a startling sight to see such sleek, modern technology set against
the mahogany doors and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the East Room or the
marble columns of the Grand Foyer.
It s just something presidents haven t done, said Martha Joynt Kumar, a
presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December
1975. It s jarring to the eye. In a way, it stands in the middle between the
audience and the president because his eye is on the teleprompter.
Just how much of a crutch the teleprompter has become for Obama was on sharp
display during his latest commerce secretary announcement. The president spoke
from a teleprompter in the ornate Indian Treaty Room for a few minutes. Then
Gov. Gary Locke stepped to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper for
reference.
The president s teleprompter also elicited some uncomfortable laughter after he
announced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Health and Human
Services secretary. Kathy, Obama said, turning the podium over to Sebelius,
who waited at the microphone for an awkward few seconds while the teleprompters
were lowered to the floor and the television cameras rolled.
Obama has relied on a teleprompter through even the shortest announcements and
when repeating the same lines on his economic stimulus plan that he's been
saying for months whereas past presidents have mostly worked off of notes on
the podium except during major speeches, such as the State of the Union.
Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for George W. Bush, said while it s entirely
a matter of personal style, using a teleprompter at these smaller events has
its drawbacks.
It removes you from the audience in the room, Fleischer said. When speaking
from notes, Fleischer said, the president can pick up his head and make eye
contact with those in the audience, as opposed to focusing on the teleprompter
to his left and right.
Bush, Fleischer added, would use the teleprompter for his major big events,
but when he would travel around the country or do events, he would almost
always work off of large index cards.
The White House says Obama s point of reference is insignificant.
"Whether one uses note cards or a teleprompter, the American people are a lot
more concerned about the plans relayed than the method of delivery. This is not
always true of the media," said Bill Burton, deputy press secretary.
Obama has never tried to hide his use of a teleprompter. It was a mainstay
during the final months of his campaign. He brought it to county fairs and
campaign rallies alike and once had it set up in the ring at a rodeo.
In a break from his routine, Obama did not use a teleprompter during his
pre-Inauguration speech at a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio and his
delivery seemed to suffer. He paused too long at parts. He accentuated the
wrong words. And overall he sounded hesitant and halting as he spoke from the
prepared remarks on the podium.
As president, the stakes in what he says are higher. Governing is not
campaigning, and, as a former first-term senator, Obama has not held a previous
elected position where his words carried even close to this level of influence.
In this kind of environment, you don t want to make mistakes on the economy
you re talking about doing things that affect the markets, Kumar said.
But be it extra precaution, style or a mental crutch, Obama has shown in the
past that he needs the teleprompter. And while he still has his prepared
remarks placed on the podium in a leather folder, the White House has shown no
sign of trying to wean him off of it.
Before Obama entered a room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on
Wednesday to announce his crackdown on defense contracts, a CNN reporter asked
an Obama aide if the teleprompter could be moved further away from the podium
or lowered. The answer was an unequivocal no.
He uses them to death, a television crewmember who also covered the White
House under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said of the
teleprompter. The problem is, he never looks at you. He s looking left, right,
left, right not at the camera. It s almost like he s not making eye contact
with the American people.
Wednesday s event posed another scenario photographers and television crews
have to work around. Obama had five others join him at the announcement,
including Sen. John McCain. The takeaway shot was of Obama and McCain. But the
teleprompter on Obama s left was almost directly in front of McCain.
You couldn t get a good angle on him with McCain, said a White House
photographer who also covered Bush. So if there s someone else important in
the frame, it s hard to get a shot without the teleprompter.