The Prowler reports that Lord Obama's handlers are worried about their guy's communication skills. He got to be president by ably reading the product of their wordsmithing off of a teleprompter but as president he sometimes is required to say something they didn't write for him. The big first press conference last week caused much cringing in Omamaland apparently since now they are thinking about building a Presidential podium with a flat panel built in so he can look down "at his notes" and get cues for what to say next. Hey, if you look real close you can see the strings hanging down from David Axelrod's hands as he hangs in the rigging above our young president.
Prowler's "Screening Obama" excerpt:
"It looked scripted beyond the scripted part, the speech," says one former communications adviser, who has been feeding notes and suggestions to the White House team and worked with them on the inauguration. "Every president has gone into one of these things knowing that there were some pre-arranged questions or journalists to be called on, but this one was pretty ham-handed."
To that end, he says, the White House is looking to install a small video or computer screen into the podium used by the president for press conferences and events in the White House. "It would make it easier for the comms (communications) guys to pass along information without being obvious about it," says the adviser.
The screen would indicate whom to call on, seat placement for journalists, pass along notes or points to hit, and so forth, says the adviser.
The screen would indicate whom to call on, seat placement for journalists, pass along notes or points to hit, and so forth, says the adviser.
Using a screen is nothing new for Obama; almost nothing he said in supposedly unscripted "townhall" events during the presidential campaign was unscripted, down to many of the questions and the answers to those questions. Teleprompter screens at the events scrolled not only his opening remarks, but also statistics and information he could use to answer questions.
"It would be the same idea with the podium," says the adviser.
Obama had a teleprompter set up for his remarks last week, before taking questions, but the White House couldn't use the teleprompter for anything but the remarks, because the journalists were so close to the screens.
Obama had a teleprompter set up for his remarks last week, before taking questions, but the White House couldn't use the teleprompter for anything but the remarks, because the journalists were so close to the screens.
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All of which prompts a few questions... will Chris Matthews still get leg tingles when he finds out it's Axelrod's mind that he finds so agile? Will the handmaiden press ever cover this story? Who will write a book about Axelrod called: "Obama's Brain" ? And, when they finally are able to write out everything the guy says will they throw in a few hundred verbal pauses: "um", "er", "uh", "ah", "ya know", "I mean" every ten minutes just to throw us off?
