Obama's Teleprompter - A Crutch or Something Worse?
Barack Obama, a man known primarily for his eloquence and grand, soaring speeches, has used a teleprompter more than any President that has ever come before. He uses it at every appearance, from his speeches before foreign nations to even the lowliest press conference. What is amazing about this is not that he is using the teleprompter more than any other President (many never had access to a teleprompter, after all), but that he, perhaps more than any other presidential candidate, was known for his soaring speeches that served to galvanize and inspire his supporters.
As soon as he got into office, however, all that was left behind. These days, President Obama doesn't go anywhere without a carefully-prepared speech and his trusty teleprompter. The assumed reasoning behind the teleprompter runs the gamut: he's a perfectionist, he can't function without it, or even the idea that he is merely a mouthpiece.
I, for one, fall somewhere in the middle. I do believe that Obama may be a perfectionist, but I think it goes far beyond that. His entire team of handlers, folks such as Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, are all perfectionists. They have a carefully-crafted and manicured message and goal that they wish to execute flawlessly. In order to get the legislation they want pushed through, they need their quarterback - President Obama - to be on-point and on-message at all times. As long as he says the words they want him to say, they can keep the American people on their side and keep the President's approval numbers high. As long as these things happen, the effects trickle down through Congress and to the constituency - allowing all the Liberal legislation they want to go through.
I've never been one for conspiracy theories, so I tend to roll my eyes when people start talking about Obama as if he is the "Mouth of Sauron" (obscure Lord of the Rings reference for all the geeks out there) for George Soros, the famous (some would say infamous) currency speculator and left-wing activist. Soros rose to prominence in the 2004 election when he donated large sums of money in a failed attempt at unseating then-President George W. Bush. Since then, many have looked at Soros as the "Man Behind the Curtain" for the Democratic Party. While it is true that Soros gives the DNC a lot of money, I don't think he really has anything to do with the teleprompter. His ideas and those of the DNC mesh, and he gives them a lot of money to make things happen. For better or worse, this is how the American political system works these days.
All in all, I think that the whole teleprompter thing is pretty strange, but also a shrewd calculation made by the Obama Administration. They've undoubtedly read plenty of studies and sought the help of many advisors on how to best get across a message and how to execute a plan flawlessly before bringing the teleprompter onboard. I really believe that the teleprompter is but another cog in the gears of the Obama Machine. Rahm Emanuel has been quoted as saying, "Never let a crisis go to waste." This shows the type of attitude these guys have; they know that their time is now and they are seizing it. They are using our financial crisis to get legislation through that would never pass otherwise, and they're putting everything they have behind it. Therefore, they have the President reading from a teleprompter like a robotic figurehead for the masses - who are apparently all too eager to lap it up.