The Sarah Palin Broken TelePrompTer Myth
ST. PAUL—Interesting bit of myth-making, mistaken reporting or both. Did Sarah Palin's TelePrompTer malfunction? A very little bit, but not much.
RedState is reporting that Sarah Palin's TelePrompTer broke last night, scrolling "significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech." Politico's Jonathan Martin disputes the report. "Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech," Martin writes. "But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the Teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems."
I too was sitting in the press section, (behind Palin and off to her right side). I had a clear view of the TelePrompTer, and read along with her.
At one point I noticed, and remarked to a colleague, that it would jog a line or two ahead of where she had paused. I noticed that she seemed to use the pause afforded by applause to glance down at the papers in front of her. Having found the missing line or two (it was not more than that), she would resume.
Certainly she managed the hiccups smoothly, but this is not an example of winging it in the same vein as a Truman, Kennedy, Nixon, or Clinton might have.
Tags: speeches | Republican National Convention | Sarah Palin
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Reader Comments
teleprompter
Just curious....what does the last sentence..."but this is not an example of winging it in the same vein as a Truman, Kennedy, Nixon or Clinton MIGHT have" mean?
Does that mean they actually winged their nomination acceptance or your opinion?
What he means is...
he THINKS a Democrat would have done it better. However, I've seen what happens to Obama when he doesn't have a teleprompter, and we'd have seen a lot of "Uhhhs" if this had happened to him.
Obama needed a teleprompter on O'Reilly tonight
Yes. I just watched Obama on O'Reilly, and while Obama admirably remained a gentleman under pressure, and was brave to go on that show, he did NOT remain eloquent when forced to think quickly on his own. I was, frankly, astonished. It had never occurred to me that his smoothness wasn't really HIS smoothness, but the smoothness of a teleprompter. Wow. It was a little bit embarrassing to watch. I wish him well, but he looked stumbling and amateurish. "Poised" was not the word.
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