Extemporaneous is not a word often used in the Obama White House. President Obama’s over-reliance on Teleprompters makes it look like he’s watching a tennis match when he gives a speech. Now his inability to speak in public without those trusty devices seems to have rubbed off on the First Lady.
Politico reveals the details:
In a Newsweek profile published Sunday, the first lady’s staff members said the first lady will “spend hours and even days preparing for one appearance,” according to the article.
For major speeches, like a commencement address at West Point, Obama will edit drafts by hand, according to the magazine. “Staff will then drag a lectern into her office, where she will rehearse the speech with a teleprompter for days,” it said.
“She demands a lot of herself,” David Axelrod, President Obama’s former senior adviser, told the publication.
Well, that’s one way of putting it. The less charitable among us might say, “She has no confidence in herself.”
Source: Politico
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
View Comments (66)
Smooth speech and no actiopn can´t really describe the Obama administration, since the speech isn´t that smooth and even send PC briters asleep.
Livvy, you're just a stupid (unt who is so fkkng in love with these two inarticulate clods that you have a special set of kneepads just to drop down and suck his skinny little Weiner and lap her maggoty a$$hole.
BTW, the "racist" $hit is terribly overworked. Can you come up with a new retort or hasn't Jay Carney authorized a new answer? For him, you should just turn around and bend over, he prefers the Hershey Highway over regular Lady Parts.
Have I given you anything racist yet?
Livvy, you’re just a stupid (unt who is so fkkng in love with these two inarticulate clods that you have a special set of kneepads just to drop down and suck his skinny little Weiner and lap her maggoty a$$hole.
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Translation: "I can't come up with any intelligent criticism of either the president or his wife, so I'll just repeat a bunch of dirty sounding stuff I learned in middle school, and hope it makes me sound politically savvy. Are you impressed yet?"
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BTW, the “racist” $hit is terribly overworked. Can you come up with a new retort or hasn’t Jay Carney authorized a new answer? For him, you should just turn around and bend over, he prefers the Hershey Highway over regular Lady Parts.
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I know nothing about Jay Carney or his sex habits, my boy, so your comment means nothing to me. As for the term "racist": I call them as I see them. If you can't handle being called a racist, why, then, don't talk like one. It's that simple. ;)
P.S. Let me give you a bit of friendly advice: You're wasting your time, if you're trying to shock or gross out a nurse by blathering about genitals, rectums or feces. Body parts and their functions hold no terrors for most nurses, nor do juvenile slang terms for same. But, if you REALLY want to shock me, try making an intelligent comment of substance. :D
Wow, Olivia. Keep riding that crest, that wave of false triumph...defending your absolute 'fraud and failure for the country' president.
Checked any polls lately, Pollyanna?
Wow, Olivia. Keep riding that crest, that wave of false triumph…defending your absolute ‘fraud and failure for the country’ president.
Checked any polls lately, Pollyanna?
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No "wave of triumph," false or otherwise here, Woody. I'm just pointing out the dishonesty of some of the insults posted here.
She's as narcissistic as O and a whole lot meaner looking! I think she'd make a halfway good-looking Wookie though.
You've just pissed off all of the Wookie special interest groups, and they are gonna have your ass in a sling.
But I might be able to negotiate a little cash settlement.
CASH!?! Cash?!! WTH is that? After most the bills are paid I get to go back to work and pay the rest of them, who said anything about having spare cash?
CASH!?! Cash?!! WTH is that? After most the bills are paid I get to go back to work and pay the rest of them, who said anything about having spare cash?
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Really? Perhaps you're just not working hard enough, or are planning poorly.
Raaaaaaaaaaaaacist!
"Really? Perhaps you’re just not working hard enough, or are planning poorly."
Or choice number 3: He is taxed to within an inch of his life with no relief in sight.
“Really? Perhaps you’re just not working hard enough, or are planning poorly.”
Or choice number 3: He is taxed to within an inch of his life with no relief in sight.
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Nah. If the government were to lower his taxes, no doubt it would deplete his initiative to work hard. Can't have that, can we? ;)
"Nah. If the government were to lower his taxes, no doubt it would deplete his initiative to work hard. Can’t have that, can we?"
Huh? Don't you have that backwards?
Haven't ever put in a boat-load of OT and then seen a piddly amount show up on your paycheck, with more going to taxes than in your pocket? Didn't that make you say "screw the OT, it's not worth it?"
Or did it make you go "Oh goody! I'm going to keep working lots and LOTS of OT so that I can earn 3/4 of my usual income! Whoo woo!" Yeah, right.
“Nah. If the government were to lower his taxes, no doubt it would deplete his initiative to work hard. Can’t have that, can we?”
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Huh? Don’t you have that backwards?
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I was being facetious, Barb. That's a very popular right wing fable, designed to justify cutting social programs. But, of course, no one wants to apply it to THEMSELVES---just to the Unpopular Demographic Group du Jour.
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Haven’t ever put in a boat-load of OT and then seen a piddly amount show up on your paycheck, with more going to taxes than in your pocket? Didn’t that make you say “screw the OT, it’s not worth it?”
Or did it make you go “Oh goody! I’m going to keep working lots and LOTS of OT so that I can earn 3/4 of my usual income! Whoo woo!” Yeah, right.
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Neither. I realize that taxes are an unpleasant but necessary fact of life, like going to the dentist or cleaning out the refrigerator. Sure, it would be nice to have lower taxes, but someone's got to make up for the big tax cuts that the Republicans keep awarding to the Top 2%.
By default, that job lands on those of us who are neither rich nor poor, and are lucky enough to have a job.
Epic Economic (Epinomic?) FAIL.
Oh s4it, God forgive me, I hit the wrong thumb on Livvy. I guess Livvy is one of those elite megarich limousine liberals who has plenty of money that Daddy made bootlegging during Prohibition or marrying a Ketchup Queen.
Hey Livvy, here's a clue:
Step 1 -- Grab your left ear with your right hand.
Step 2 -- Grab your right ear with your left hand.
Step 3 -- PULL HARD!!! And get your head out of your a$$.
Oh s4it, God forgive me, I hit the wrong thumb on Livvy. I guess Livvy is one of those elite megarich limousine liberals who has plenty of money that Daddy made bootlegging during Prohibition or marrying a Ketchup Queen.
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As usual, your "guesses" are wrong. I've never been rich, and never will be. But I work pretty hard at what I do, make a respectable income, and live a (comparatively) frugal life style.
Nothing spectacular----but very different from all those silly stereotypes you've been fed about us. :D
(Don't worry about that accidental thumbs-up rating. I never pay much attention to those, anyway.)
Ah, us. Got it. I'd guess you were KTempest, the "Angry Black Woman" who falsified an abortion story and got called on it (had to retract) except she's dumber than you. Which is kind of frightening.
Ah, us. Got it. I’d guess you were KTempest, the “Angry Black Woman” who falsified an abortion story and got called on it (had to retract) except she’s dumber than you. Which is kind of frightening.
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I don't know anything about that incident. What made you bring it up during this discussion, Anniee?
Your utter transparency.
Wookies are walking away, shaking their head in disgust.
She had no problem telling us that Barack the savior was going to change our history, our speech and our ways. Nor did she have a problem telling us that for most of her life she wasn't really feeling much love for the US. So... my conjecture is that she has to practice in order for the lies to seem true. Perhaps she needs to practice in order to eliminate the laughter that comes from knowing that what you are saying is crap.
Perhaps they will make an academy award winning picture about her in the future called "The Twit's speech". But it is really Palin who is the dumb one cause she wrote a few bullet points on her hand for a debate.
Perhaps they will make an academy award winning picture about her in the future called “The Twit’s speech”. But it is really Palin who is the dumb one cause she wrote a few bullet points on her hand for a debate.
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Now, this is truly comical: the notion that there's something disgraceful about the First Lady practicing diligently before a public appearance, and the notion that it's ridiculous to regard Sarah Palin as being dumb.
I don't know which statement is the more absurd! :D
Oh it's ridiculous all right. It took a bunch of historians to clear up the fact that she was 100% RIGHT about Paul Revere, despite Matthews et. al. claiming she should know about history. Duh, they're the ones who didn't KNOW history, and she made fool-gruel out of them all LOL
Oh it’s ridiculous all right. It took a bunch of historians to clear up the fact that she was 100% RIGHT about Paul Revere, despite Matthews et. al. claiming she should know about history. Duh, they’re the ones who didn’t KNOW history, and she made fool-gruel out of them all LOL
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You mean it took a bunch of GOP scriptwriters to fudge the Paul Revere story, to create an illusion that she knew what she was talking about.
The part about Paul Revere protecting the colonists' right to bear arms was funny enough. (I'm assuming she'd heard "The British are coming! To arms!" and had taken it very literally.) But I laughed out loud when she made that comment about him "ringin' those bells." WHAT bells? The ones in the church tower? He wasn't in the tower---he was on a horse, riding with all speed toward Concord. He had neither time nor reason to ring any bells-----he had a message to deliver. And it would have been pretty stupid of him to make a spectacle of himself while hurrying to deliver it under cover of darkness. ;)
The thing is, if Palin didn't know the story (which is pretty bizarre, but I suppose it's possible), she could have handled the situation a lot more effectively. She could have said to one of the locals, "I know the story of Paul Revere, of course, but I'd love to hear it told by one of you Bostonians." The people would have enjoyed sharing some details of their town's history; she would have come across as a sympathetic and interested listener; and she might actually have learned something. But she couldn't do that. It was too tempting to hog that limelight, even though she hadn't bothered to study the script in advance.
That's what I think is dumb about Sarah Palin. I'm not referring to her IQ, which I'm sure is respectable, or her ability to fire up her fan base. I'm referring to her lack of judgment.
We saw that lack of judgment when she botched the Paul Revere story; we saw it when she mistook a Canadian radio personality with a hokey PePe LePew accent for the President of France, and we saw it when she tried to claim that sitting in a plane on an Irish runway for 30 minutes equalled foreign travel experience.
After sentence #1 of your idiocy, I don't need to go further. You're a fool. And a liar.
Piss off.
After sentence #1 of your idiocy, I don’t need to go further. You’re a fool. And a liar.
Piss off.
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Translation: "I can't dispute the facts, so I'll fling insults at you, instead."
Now, how did I know that this was how you'd react to a reality check?
I'll give you a thumbs up for your thoughts about the First Lady practicing her speeches. As one who is terrified of public speaking, I actually have a lot of respect for her courage in standing up in front of a crowd to speak. Way more than I could possibly do, telepromter or not.
But you're getting a thumbs down for making the Sarah Palin is dumb comment. I have heard her speak and she may speak in colloquialisms, but I find that to be part of her charm. It makes her more real, less elite. I personally don't think she is presidential material, but I also see no evidence of muteness or inability to reason or lack of intelligence.
Net: No thumbs.
I’ll give you a thumbs up for your thoughts about the First Lady practicing her speeches. As one who is terrified of public speaking, I actually have a lot of respect for her courage in standing up in front of a crowd to speak. Way more than I could possibly do, telepromter or not.
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That makes a lot of sense, whichever First Lady we're talking about. Nothing wrong with practicing for one's role, whether that role is speaking on national TV, dancing the role of Giselle at Lincoln Center, or pitching for the local softball team.
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But you’re getting a thumbs down for making the Sarah Palin is dumb comment. I have heard her speak and she may speak in colloquialisms, but I find that to be part of her charm. It makes her more real, less elite. I personally don’t think she is presidential material, but I also see no evidence of muteness or inability to reason or lack of intelligence.
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It's not the colloquialisms, Barb. Nor is it that I think she's incapable of learning. And heaven knows NO ONE could ever accuse her of "muteness." It's her tendency to make things up as she goes along, whether she's accusing Obama of "pallin' around with terrorists," or telling the public about her daughter Bristol's plan to enter nursing school, or creating a new and original version of the Paul Revere story.
You are all wrong. It takes time and practice to translate Klingon into English!
Maybe she's one of those bitter Klingons her dipstick husband was talking about in 2008.
"The less charitable among us might say, 'She has no confidence in herself.'"
I'd say she and the Mr. must use teleprompters to mitigate all the Marxism that would normally flow out of them if left to their own oral devise. Well, all that would flow between "ahs" and "uhs" and "ums" anyway.
I think you just hit the nail on the head, "Get the man a Cupie doll!"
She keeps her ex tempered anus where? J/k... Every new picture of this person reminds me of pictures of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, before he found crack cocaine to be a reliable compound to counter his waning alertness. She really should do a guest skit on SNL in that character, if not actually host the show. That would be a disaster but great fun for weeks of blogadocio! Oh, brother, heppme! Heppme, oh gawd lawdy mama!
She keeps her ex tempered anus where? J/k… Every new picture of this person reminds me of pictures of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, before he found crack cocaine to be a reliable compound to counter his waning alertness. She really should do a guest skit on SNL in that character, if not actually host the show. That would be a disaster but great fun for weeks of blogadocio! Oh, brother, heppme! Heppme, oh gawd lawdy mama!
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But, of course, there's not one speck of racism in the above comment. It's merely about disagreeing with the president's policies, right?
I dunno, she has no trouble saying stuff like "Bring me a pizza" or "Let's go on vacation at taxpayer expense." Maybe if the speechwriters gave her better material to work with.
I dunno, she has no trouble saying stuff like “Bring me a pizza” or “Let’s go on vacation at taxpayer expense.” Maybe if the speechwriters gave her better material to work with.
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Evidence that Mrs. Obama eats an inordinate amount of pizza, please?
Evidence that the Obamas don't pay for their own vacations, please?
Or do you just want to admit that you can't come up with any real criticisms, except by lying and exaggerating?
I dunno about pizza but I have quite a few pictures of her stuffing fried food and french fries into her gullet. Odd, considering she's doing everything she can to prevent US from eating what we want.
I dunno about pizza but I have quite a few pictures of her stuffing fried food and french fries into her gullet.
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Yeah, and no doubt at least 80% of them are photoshopped.
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Odd, considering she’s doing everything she can to prevent US from eating what we want.
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Please list five things you see Michelle Obama doing to prevent you from "stuffing fried food and French fries into (your) gullet" all you please.
No doubt? Really? No doubt? I suppose you have evidence for that statement, Olivia.
I dunno about pizza but I have quite a few pictures of her stuffing fried food and french fries into her gullet.
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Yeah, and no doubt at least 80% of them are photoshopped.
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Odd, considering she’s doing everything she can to prevent US from eating what we want.
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Please list five things you see Michelle Obama doing to prevent you from “stuffing fried food and French fries into (your) gullet” all you please.
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RockingHorseGuy---> No doubt? Really? No doubt? I suppose you have evidence for that statement, Olivia.
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I'd have to see the pictures first, Horse. But, while I'm waiting for Anniee to produce them (as well as that list of ways she's being forcibly prevented from eating junk food), I'd love to see YOUR rationale for thinking I need to understand the dynamics behind flying a commercial jet in order to practice nursing.
"But, while I’m waiting for Anniee to produce them (as well as that list of ways she’s being forcibly prevented from eating junk food)"
When did she say she was being forcibly prevented from eating junk food? I don't see it anywhere? What did I miss?
Oh, I get it. Spin, spin, spin, Olivia, you make me dizzy and NOT in a good way.
“But, while I’m waiting for Anniee to produce them (as well as that list of ways she’s being forcibly prevented from eating junk food)”
When did she say she was being forcibly prevented from eating junk food? I don’t see it anywhere? What did I miss?
Oh, I get it. Spin, spin, spin, Olivia, you make me dizzy and NOT in a good way.
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Sorry, Barb, but I'm merely asking Anniee to back up her accusation with some facts.
Nice of you to try to run interference for her by aiming false accusations at ME, but it's not going to work. Anyone who isn't a liar or a fool can see exactly who was trying to spin here.....and it wasn't me.
;)
"Sorry, Barb, but I’m merely asking Anniee to back up her accusation with some facts."
Sorry Olivia, but you are asking Anniee to back up accusations she never made.
Spin, spin, spin.
“Sorry, Barb, but I’m merely asking Anniee to back up her accusation with some facts.”
Sorry Olivia, but you are asking Anniee to back up accusations she never made.
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Wrong, Ms. Pinocchio. Anniee stated: ".....(S)he’s doing everything she can to prevent US from eating what we want."
I challenged her to come up with five examples of same (which, of course, she's failed to do).
And that's when you came barging in here full tilt, accusing me of "spinning."
Now, think about this for a minute: Why did you feel the need to charge in here and lie for Anniee?
Is her position so indefensible, in your opinion, that the only way she can escape with pride intact is to have you fling false accusations?
I dunno, she has no trouble saying stuff like “Bring me a pizza” or “Let’s go on vacation at taxpayer expense.” Maybe if the speechwriters gave her better material to work with.
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Evidence that Mrs. Obama eats an inordinate amount of pizza, please?
Evidence that the Obamas don’t pay for their own vacations, please?
Or do you just want to admit that you can’t come up with any real criticisms, except by lying and exaggerating?
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And, just as I expected, not one poster here had the guts or honesty to respond.
They talk really tough, until asked to back up their claims....then they scatter like frightened mice.
"And, just as I expected, not one poster here had the guts or honesty to respond."
So what am I? Chopped liver?
And I think Buck actually meant "bring me a tamale" - her own husband made that joke, so don't come down on us for it.
She calls them 'shpeechwriters'. You know like she pronounces 'shtrength' and 'shtrong'.
I don't know. I've never been unlucky enough to actually hear her try to speak.
Key phrase being 'TRY to speak'.
"She calls them ‘shpeechwriters’. You know like she pronounces ‘shtrength’ and ‘shtrong’."
I thought that was a west coast thing. I worked with an office full of schtrong people in Thousand Oaks. Loved them all, but they sure talked funny. But then again, they thought I did too, eh?
"Look! A tamale!"