Obama: The Teleprompter Candidate

Is Barack Obama a qualified presidential candidate, in command of his words and ideas, or does he just play one on the campaign trail?

From CNN:

It appears Barack Obama's teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.

The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn't use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.

But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.

Obama's use of the teleprompter leads me to believe that he's really struggling.

He's added some new lines to his stump speech and he can't be trusted to remember them or deliver them effectively. When he strays off script, he gets in trouble.

He's really been screwing up his words lately.

For example, Rush Limbaugh points out this gaffe:

It was on Good Morning America today, an exclusive interview with Good Morning America, and the subject of this particular interview was campaign low blows versus standard attack ads. And Mark Mooney, ABC reports, quotes Obama as having said on Good Morning America today, "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." ABC follows it up and said, "What Obama meant is that McCain, not Obama, has put out more negative ads."

Transcript

RUSH: We've got it, ladies and gentlemen. We've got Obama on Good Morning America today, and he's denying here in this bite that his ad (the "McCain is computer illiterate" ad) is intended to attack McCain for being old. Chris Cuomo says, "Now we see these new ads that come out calling McCain an old man."

OBAMA: Hold on, I didn't -- I didn't say that. What I said was -- I mean, let's be fair, Chris -- what I said was that John McCain is out of touch.

CUOMO: But the ad is a negative ad. You paint him as an old man, say you can't use a computer, he's never sent an e-mail, what does that all mean?

OBAMA: What it means is that we've got a 21st century economy and John McCain does not have a vision for how to move that forward.

CUOMO: So no apologies for that ad?

OBAMA: If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily. (rimshot)

As the gaffes pile up, and Obama is out there claiming victory for promulgating the most negative ads, I can see why he needs his teleprompter security blanket.

I completely understand why Obama is afraid to join John McCain in town hall meetings. I understand why he's reneged on his agreement to participate. Teleprompters aren't much use in that sort of forum.

When Obama has to think on his feet, he stumbles.

Is Obama ready to lead if he can't even deliver a speech at a standard campaign rally or event without a teleprompter, after months and months on the trail?

There are no teleprompters when a U.S. president meets with foreign leaders.

Can you imagine if McCain was dragging around a teleprompter to run-of-the-mill campaign events? He'd be ridiculed, called too old to get through a speech without one.

If Sarah Palin worked off a teleprompter, she'd be accused of being completely scripted with no command of the issues.

Obama, naturally, gets a free pass from the lib media.