Obama uses teleprompter and podium in a sixth grade classroom

Sixth grade classrooms are pretty small. A teleprompter must take up a big percentage of the room.

President Barack Obama is facing criticism after using a podium and teleprompter to address the media in a sixth grade classroom.

President Obama, accompanied by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, spoke to the media after a discussion with sixth grade students at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia.

Although Obama was not speaking to the students from the podium, questions are being asked as to why the president needed a teleprompter to address the media. . . . .

The trouble with using teleprompters all the time

This mix up with the teleprompter is slightly embarrassing for the president.

The teleprompter president

This was very funny.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address in Washington when he realised it all sounded a bit too familiar.
It was. He was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.
Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: "That's your speech."
A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.
Mr Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the "teleprompt president" over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech. . . . .

Obama's unusual dependence on a teleprompter

The Politico notes Obama's unusual use below. I can only imagine what would happen to Bush or another Republican if they needed a teleprompter this much.

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. . . . .

Obama using teleprompter at press conferences: Where are the comedy routines?

Could you imagine if Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush had used a teleprompter to answer questions during a press conference? The late night joke writers wouldn't let this go until the president gave in to the merciless ridicule that he would face. The president would be painted as an idiot who couldn't tie his shoes without being feed instructions on how to do it.

While people who watched Obama's first national press conference noticed Obama's use of a teleprompter to give his initial presentation as well as in answering questions, the media and late night joke writers have completely ignored it. The American Spectator notes in many events: "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." Apparently, Obama is looking into installing a computer screen into the podium so that according to one Obama advisor: "It would make it easier for the comms guys to pass along information without being obvious about it." Obama's aids would put together answers to a large number of possible questions so as soon as a reporter asks a particular question the computer screen would flash talking points to remind Obama how he is supposed to respond to that question.