| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Sarah Palin "Winged" Her Speech Because of "Broken" Teleprompter |
| 2008-09-04 |
| Halfway through Sarah Palin's speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text. According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. The malfunction also occurred during Rudy Giuliani's speech, explaining his significant deviations from his speech. [see the update below on this part] Unfazed, Governor Palin continued, from memory [and relying on her printed text, clearly looking down occasionally at the printed page], to deliver her speech without the teleprompter cued to the appropriate point in her speech. Contrast this to Barack Obama who, when last his teleprompter malfunctioned, was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved. Sarah Palin. Winner. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #17 Cause the bouncing ball is so much more fun? |
| Posted by: ed 2008-09-04 23:50 |
| #16 Than why don't politicians have a teleprompter person on their staff? |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-09-04 23:47 |
| #15 That isn't something you do in a day, rj. The soloist/pianist teamwork is a good analogy -- it takes working together a while and Gov. Palin couldn't come down to MN until she was publicly named as his choice. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-09-04 22:22 |
| #14 Biggest speach of her career and they didn't find a way to iron out issues ahead of time? Back to the incompetance line. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-09-04 22:20 |
| #13 There were issues with the pacing in the teleprompter, mainly due to the long audience applause pauses. This was the firs time that this teleprompter operator had worked wiht Sarah Palin, and there were "disconnects" on rate, lag vs lead, the ad lib Sarah put in there, etc. If any of you had ever worked with a teleprompter, you'd know that its like being a soloist and an accompanist. The accompanist needs to learn your pacing, where you tend to go into "riffs", how you come back from them, etc. They also learn if you like the teleprompter to lead you (i.e. be on the next bit while you are speaking the current one) so you can "slug the words" in advance, or if you like it lagged so you can read the words and still hold the phrasing visually. I would bet that this operator is assigned to stay with her for the rest of the campaign, and practices a bit more with her to smooth out these irregularities. That there would be issues with a new GOP teleprompter operator is not surprising. But it wasn't strictly a "malfunction", even though there were issues. So both sides are relatively correct. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-09-04 22:13 |
| #12 Jan, that annoys me too. |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-09-04 21:32 |
| #11 I too am suspicious of the teleprompter malfunction for both speeches. For Palin to bring a back up of notes just shows what a smart cookie she really is. Something else that bugs me, is learning how the speeches are given ahead of time to the news media so they can comment. This is so very wrong IMO, A big part of the comments should be their evaluation being the same as ours digesting the speech at that time, not comments after picking every word apart, or commenting on how well they will deliver the speech. |
| Posted by: Jan 2008-09-04 21:15 |
| #10 I don't have time to look for a link right now (maybe Power Line?), but I read earlier today that the teleprompter wasn't paused for the applause she got and therefore it got way ahead of her - so she just gave it from her notes and memory. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-04 20:57 |
| #9 I hate to say it but this sounds bogus to me. Guy was given a new telepromter, one he was unfamiliar with, right before a big speach? Either someone is incompetent at that convention or something is wrong in the story. And someone blocked a teleprompter with a sign? They let the audience in that close that the teleprompters could be bumped or blocked? Incompetence again? I think we have a bit of exaggeration and mythmaking here. THe prefect story to make her a superhero and at the same time cover any minor gaff she might have had during the speech. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-09-04 20:50 |
| #8 I was quite convinced that she did not need any teleprompter at all, based on her peeks at her notes. In fact, I was convinced that she told them to skip the teleprompter entirely. Well, it is almost as she really did tell'em.;-) Anyway, what was it I wanted to say... oh, yea! Palin for president! |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-09-04 20:00 |
| #7 I thought she had taken a long obvious look at the teleprompter with a pause. This would explain a lot, may even give a pass (maybe even buy a drink for) to the c-span producer for the couple teleprompter camera angles if that was what s/he was trying to convey in a 4 sec snippet. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-09-04 18:46 |
| #6 The Teleprompter Gods are taking sides in this election. |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-09-04 16:44 |
| #5 Very nice speech, well delivered. And the prompter broke? What a coincidence. I can't wait to see her debate ol' Smokin' Joe. The man is a tendentious idiot, and with a temper to boot. She'll eat him alive and start spitting out bones. |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-09-04 16:23 |
| #4 hmmmm... how often does it happen that a teleprompter fails for two speakers in a row?! I question the timing and the aide who was responsible for making sure that it worked. I did notice a break in the tempo of her speech and made a comment about it to my husband. If she pulled that off without a teleprompter I love her even more!! |
| Posted by: Betty Grating2215 2008-09-04 16:17 |
| #3 Best comment so far: Sarah Palin used her golden lasso on Joe Biden, and when he tried to tell the truth his head exploded. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-09-04 16:03 |
| #2 I think the Johnny Mac should offer to let his inexperienced Veep candidate debate the Dems inexperienced Pre candidate. He can then offer to debate Biden while saying he's picking on someone his own expericnial size. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-09-04 15:14 |
| #1 Bambi can't put two rational sentences together without his teleprompter. Oh the debates are going to be great fun.... |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-09-04 14:54 |