The Palin Teleprompter Myth
September 4, 2008, 7:13pm
ST. PAUL — Word on the cable networks this morning is that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is a superstar because she delivered her rousing speech at the convention here last night despite a broken teleprompter.
MSNBC reported that tidbit. So did Fox News, with an aide to GOP presidential candidate John McCain talking about the teleprompter woes. Now the blogs are running with the story.
Don’t believe the myth. I watched the speech from the area to the left and behind the stage in the Xcel Center and had a perfect view of the teleprompter. It worked fine. I have the footage to prove it.
At this point, you may be wondering why I videotaped the teleprompter, so here’s my answer: Palin’s speech seemed rushed. She was missing what I thought would have been key applause lines. But then I realized it wasn’t entirely her fault; the teleprompter was rushing Palin through the speech.
I decided to get a clip of the teleprompter in action. At the time, I just thought it would be a colorful item worth blogging. I didn’t think I would need it to debunk a convention myth. But with the networks, the blogs and even the McCain campaign spreading the rumor that the teleprompter wasn’t working, AirCongress can set the record straight.
Watch the teleprompter, the one that was directly in front of the stage, and listen to Palin speaking. The rolling text and her speech are in sync. The teleprompter also stops rolling when the applause begins, and it resumes when Palin starts speaking. That was true throughout the speech.
At least one blog reported that Palin deviated significantly from the prepared speech because the teleprompter broke. That’s also not true. She did ad lib one of her best lines of the night — the one about the only difference between hockey moms and pit bulls being lipstick –but she pretty much read the rest of the speech as it appeared on the teleprompter.
So there you have it. There’s no need to wait for the Internet rumor-buster Snopes.com to get on the case. You heard it at AirCongress first.
Categories: AirCongress, Republican Convention
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September 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I’d be interested to see the whole video of the teleprompter. It was reported that the problems began later in the speech, and from a couple of the shots CNN showed during the speech I could see that it was running fast. Even so, she had a rough draft of the speech on paper as well. Either way, it was a great speech.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Cut through the lies and Fox News Turd Polish and you have a party determined to wreck America and blame it on the black guy…
April 30th, 2009 at 11:19 am
That’s so random that someone would have taped that. The power of the internet huh? To be fair it would have been more compelling if the video had the part with “lipstick” line. And other zingers which seemed off the cuff.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
great speech? using her son’s service as a tool to gain political capital? that’s the lowest of the low. Anyone who thinks this charlatan is going to help the GOP is delusional and deserves her kind of “leadership”.