Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
There was a little hiccup yesterday at the White House
after President Obama's home teleprompter reportedly malfunctioned
during a family dinner.
Onion News Network Washington Correspondent Jane Carmichael
joins us now with more.
Jane, tell us what exactly happened over there?
Well, last night in the middle of a conversation with Malia
about raising her allowance
Presdient Obama's home teleprompter suddenly went blank.
He sort of froze mid-sentence,
but after a few seconds of silence
Obama was able to pull up his prepared remarks from memory.
So, it didn't differ at all, basically,
from the copy of the dinner conversation
that it had sent over to reporters before hand?
That's right, it was almost verbatim.
He hit all the points about Malia needing to get at least a B in math
and trying to get onto the soccer team,
just in a different order than they were written.
Well, White House Deputy Press Secretary Brenda Inglett
briefly addressed this error today.
Let's take a look.
The President has hundreds of conversations everyday
and it simply isn't feasible for him to memorize the text
for every single one.
The prompter is really just a tool
to help the President to speak, blink, and breath.
Obama is always open about the fact
that he works with a team of talented writers
on every remark he makes.
Yes, absolutely the prompter just helps make sure
he doesn't say the wrong thing at any point every.
Exactly.
He would write his conversations himself
but he is just too busy. - He is the President.
He does make sure, though, to look over and edit
any asides or off-hand remarks he didn't personally script.
Of course, you know Jane, it seems like the President
has gotten better at using the teleprompter since the campaign.
- Yes, he sure has. - Remember that pumpkin patch incident
before the election, when the wind blew the prompter over
in the middle of picking pumpkins with the girls.
That's right, causing Obama to fumble around awkwardly,
drop the pumkin he was holding,
and refer to Sasha as Jennifer.
And, there was the CAPS Lock incident.
Oh, yes. Obama nearly shouted himself hoarse
over the course of that speech.
There were various mix ups
where teleprompter operators displayed the wrong lines.
Once it caused him to say,
"I played a little basketball myself in high school,"
after sampling a piece of Cape Cod salt water taffy.
-The GOP had a field day with that one. - It was awful.
Obama was furious about it.
He had his staff put a long angry rant into the teleprompter
for him to scream at them. - I remember that.
But, you know also, Jane, we should point out
that Obama is not the first president to use scripted interactions.
Ronald Reagan was known for using que cards, for instance.
Yes, that's exactly right.
And, of course, Joe Bidden is known for reading his remarks
off of his arm, where he has written them in magic marker.
Exactly, right.
Well, Jane thank you so much for that report.
- We appreciate it as always. - Thank you Ana.
Far from caving to criticism
the president has increased his reliance on the teleprompter,
sending it alone on low-priority diplomatic meetings
and photo opps.
Well, right after the break we'll talk to a Philadelphian
who knows all the best places to get murdered.
Still ahead this hour:
Real-life 'Transformer' electrocutes child.