Tennis Anyone?

I have been reading all of the editorials and articles about President Obama and the teleprompters. Since our new president is supposedly the most eloquent and gifted speaker we have ever been blessed with to grace our White House, I have been trying to find at least one shred of evidence of his talent.

His friends in the media have been selling Obama's "gift" to us since he addressed the 2004 Democrat convention. Even Rush Limbaugh agrees that he is an eloquent speaker. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Limbaugh, the liberal media and the rest of the Obama Kool-aid crowd.

Today I watched as our president gave a speech on education that was televised. He never once looked at the camera. Instead, his head turned from left to right to left to right, etc. It looked as if he was watching a tennis match. You could turn the sound off and almost hear the announcer at Wimbledon. I also took notice that he never changes facial expressions. If you didn't speak English you wouldn't know if he was talking about the "dire economy" or "hope for our children". He was so afraid to take his eyes off the teleprompter. It's frightening to think that this man cannot speak from his heart and memorize a few lines.

Gifted speakers do not read scripts. The gift is that they can communicate by connecting their the heart with the brain and allowing emotion to come through. While the teleprompter has been around through several administrations, it has never been used in the way it is being used by President Obama. Is this a sign of where communication is going?

With hand held communication devices, texting and email, have we become so addicted to reading type that we are willing to sacrifice true passion in speaking and speech-making for monotone reading of prepared monologues? Is Barack Obama to be the father of electronic delivery? We no longer seek a 'Great communicator' just a good reader? Is this yet another step in the dumbing down of America, so that everyone gets a chance to be president?

I have a fantasy. President Obama is in the middle of a well written State of the Union speech. His head is going back and forth from screen to screen when all of a sudden the screen goes blank. In his over confidence he has depended completely on the teleprompter and has to wait for someone to deliver him a paper copy of his speech. As he fuddles with the pages and buries his head in the podium, all of America would see the true Barack Obama. "Um, uh ahh, um I, uh". It would be too funny. But until then, have a little fun the next time Obama gives a speech: Watch the tennis match!