John McCain Learns the Perils of Teleprompters
EmailHe’s in the midst of his biographical tour, but at Annapolis, Maryland, this morning, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accidentally wiped out some of his thoughts he intended to share when a mishap with his Teleprompter excised part of his speech.
Per ABC News’ eagle-eyed Bret Hovell, McCain left out the following passage:
"Like most people, when I reflect back on the adventures and joys of youth, I feel a longing for what is lost and cannot be restored. But though such happy pursuits prove ephemeral, something better can endure, and endure until our last moment on earth. And that is the honor you earn and the love you give when you sacrifice with others for a cause greater than yourself.
"Our civilization’s progress is accelerated by the information-technology revolution that ranks with the industrial revolution as a great pivot point in history. All around the world, the dynamics of the new economy: the internet, the communications revolution and globalization are transforming the way we work and create value; the way we govern ourselves — or others presume to govern us; the way we live.
"But even as we stand today, at the threshold of an age in which the genius of America will, I am confident, again be proven — the genius that historian Frederick Turner called "that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism … that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom" — many Americans are indifferent to or cynical about the virtues that our country claims. In part, it is attributable to the dislocations economic change causes; to the experience of Americans who have, through no fault of their own, been left behind as others profit as they never have before. In part, it is in reaction to government’s mistakes and incompetence, and to the selfishness of some public figures who seek to shine the luster of their public reputations at the expense of the public good. But for others, cynicism about our country, government, social and religious institutions seems not a reaction to occasions when they hav e been let down by these institutions, but because the ease which wealth and opportunity have given their lives led them to the mistaken conclusion that America, and the liberties its system of government is intended to protect, just aren’t important to the quality of their lives.
"I’m a conservative, and I believe it is a very healthy thing for Americans to be skeptical about the purposes and practices of public officials. We shouldn’t expect too much from government — nor should it expect too much from us. Self-reliance — not foisting our responsibilities off on others — is the ethic that made America great.
"But when healthy skepticism sours into corrosive cynicism our expectations of our government become reduced to the delivery of services. And to some people the expectations of liberty are reduced to the right to choose among competing brands of designer coffee."
Whoops.
- jpt
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This must have been McCain’s greatest and most honest speech to date. It perfectly reflects the many gaps in his memory, that partly explain his flip-flopping on so many issues. And if he would remember his own political wrongdoings (the Keating Five, etc.) in the past as well as the DNC does, he never would have run for President in the first place.
Posted by: Greta | April 2, 2008, 10:14 am 10:14 am
When Liberman has to remind you and correct who the hell you think your fighting it’s obvious your either senile, or a puppet. McCain makes Ron Paul look like an energetic, intelligent young man by comparison, and they’re about the same freakin’ age!
Posted by: cba | April 2, 2008, 10:31 am 10:31 am
Probably for the best. I mean, who writes this stuff? “But though such happy pursuits prove ephemeral …” makes him sound a hundred years older than he is.
Posted by: emily | April 2, 2008, 10:36 am 10:36 am
Did Bret notice extraordinary applause at the shortened speech?
Posted by: spammer | April 2, 2008, 10:37 am 10:37 am
Better than having to tell Bill Richardson “Turn and smile at Obama”
Talk about puppets!
McCain/Romney ..THE winning ticket!
Posted by: Jo | April 2, 2008, 10:57 am 10:57 am
I like John McCain – he makes me smile! Don’t think he would be the best President though . . .
Obama ’08
P.S. Something about Mrs. McCain makes me a little uneasy, can’t put my finger on it, but she creeps me out a bit . . .
Posted by: Nobody's fool | April 2, 2008, 11:04 am 11:04 am
Poor McCain
Posted by: james | April 2, 2008, 11:27 am 11:27 am
McCain’s wife looks like a doll and I don’t mean that in a complimentary way. Her face doesn’t seem capable of showing any discernable expressions. Clearly a serial BOTOX user and the fact that she looks so munch younger than McCain makes him look like a dirty old man. This geezer has zero chance of connecting with the young people who are registering to vote en mass and helping to drive this election towards Senator Obama. As soon as the Republicans start trying to bring up this Rev. Wright crap, Obama can hit back with the Keating 5 and the fact that, if it was my party who was responsible for this economy and this ridiculous war, I’d try changing the subject too! “Go away Mrs. Pinocchio and Take the oldster with you. It’s over.
Obama 08!
Posted by: roxanne | April 2, 2008, 11:31 am 11:31 am
I suppose the President should be whoever is best at reading off a teleprompter.
Posted by: geevill | April 2, 2008, 11:44 am 11:44 am
And this hot tempered old man who hardly can tell the difference between Iran and Iraq wants to beat Obama in the GE?
btw -
the new RCP average for the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary is Clinton +6…
Madame is going down! Three weeks to go and have her hit the ground!
Posted by: ken | April 2, 2008, 11:48 am 11:48 am
“McCain’s wife looks like a doll”
She IS a doll, named Cindy. And she used to be an addicted drugs thief. Just check her bio at wikipedia.
Posted by: tula | April 2, 2008, 11:51 am 11:51 am
PPP’s Pennsylvania poll 03/15 – 03/16: Clinton leads 26%
PPP’s Pennsylvania poll 03/31 – 04/01:
Obama leads 2%
There is a God after all.
Posted by: johnk | April 2, 2008, 11:55 am 11:55 am
Does anybody ELSE doubt that McCain actually will BE the Republican nominee — that his candidacy is temporary, marking time while the so-called Democrats come up with a nominee?
Posted by: Navarro | April 2, 2008, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
of course he learns the perils of teleprompter-he looks like
Mr. McGoo
and yes his wife looks like a “cindy”
doll. but lets not go there with the wife and stealing the drugs.although she did.she set up a not for profit organization-and was caught stealing drugs from it It was unfortunate, but
we do not know what she was having to deal with that caused her to turn to the drugs in the first place. but mccain in short on a lot of real issues that we can talk about. without bringing up his wife and her past problems.
Posted by: jgaw | April 2, 2008, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a former Clinton administration appointee, announced Wednesday that he will support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Posted by: Navarri | April 2, 2008, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
McCains lack of campaign fundraising has finally begun to take its toll. The vintage 60s teleprompters he is using are being to break down. He can always go back to clay tablets.
OBAMA 08
Posted by: Radmanaustin | April 2, 2008, 2:01 pm 2:01 pm
John you crazy ole’ coot, you are just too much…Ha, he’s not much on the economy and his assesment of Iraq is shakey at best but something about his old butt that makes you say…if you would just keep that orange skeleton lady outa sight (it scares the kids) I may just have a beer with this fella, I won’t vote for him but John and I would sure paint the town red…what a hoot.
Obama ’08
Posted by: mims | April 2, 2008, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
and Obama learns the perils of no telepromter. A baby is a punishment says Obama.
Posted by: geevill | April 2, 2008, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
I’ve been working as a professional teleprompter operator for the last twenty years, and worked with McCain eight years ago, and he pulled the same BS with me.
He doesn’t like teleprompters, so he tries to do the speech from memory, and when he gets lost in the speech and the teleprompter doesn’t match what he’s saying, he blames the operator.
Teleprompters are long lists of sentences, and there’s a lot of information on the screen at any time.
If you’ve ever read from one, or seen one operating, you’d know that we simply follow along. It’s almost impossible to go “too fast” or whatever other lie people on camera say when they don’t know how to read. And there’s no way to “skip a page” unless a serious operator error had been made.
I would say, after what I saw personally, and the news about teleprompter problems, I think the guy just can’t read well enough to do the job. Does he care enough to rehearse this stuff at all? Is he going to be blaming the teleprompter at state of the union addresses?
What we have here is a man who doesn’t take responsibility for his mistakes. Instead he blames others.
Sound familiar?
Damon
Posted by: damon | April 2, 2008, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm
The McCain campaign said Wednesday the Arizona senator’s medical records will no longer be released by April 15. They now say the new timetable is “sometime in May.” (CNN reports)
McCain is desperately seeking second opinions on his lack of memory and his malfunctioning judgment.
Posted by: king | April 2, 2008, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm
I like McCain for his fortitude. I also like the fact that he has taken a stand against his party at times. In fact I have the utmost tolerance for flip-floppers.
Wish Dubya had flip-flopped against Cheney, and the neo-cons about the Iraq mess. I wish he had and would flip-flop about many things.
However, he is proud to be “idiotically
and idealogically” rigid. Flipping and flopping when circumstances call for it is called rationality.
As for McCain’s problem with a teleprompter, I have seen many a newscaster have trouble, despite what someone said about “the ease of it”!
I have also seen many that did not know which way to look re the camera. Humans do err! I would just rather have someone give me a “downhome” talk instead of a speech anyway.
Posted by: MC | April 2, 2008, 5:15 pm 5:15 pm
McCain = Draft
Army Chief of Staff General George Casey tells us that our military is way overstretched, and that tours-of-duty will have to become shortened. General (ret) Barry McCaffrey has said that we are so lowering recruitment standards just to keep our numbers up that he is concerned for the long-term quality of the military. Republican presidential candidate John McCain states he “is confident” that Americans will be patriotic enough to answer the call to duty and volunteer in sufficient numbers for the military. McCain is dead serious when he talks about his war policy. He wants to continue the Iraq War. He pledges to increase the US commitment to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. He wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell. He also speaks of other wars. If we continue along the path our president has us locked into and that McCain supports, we will need more quality ‘volunteers’ than are willing. That means McCain must recruit folks who don’t want to be recruited. That means the return of the draft.
Posted by: Alcid | April 2, 2008, 8:10 pm 8:10 pm
McBush said that Iran was training Al Qaeda in Iraq, even though Iran is Shi’ite and Al Qaeda is Sunni!
Posted by: Frank | April 3, 2008, 3:10 am 3:10 am
Obama can run his mouth all day long saying McCain is old, angry, confused, forgetful, unknowledgeable, a friend of special interests, a warmonger, a crony, etc. but in the general election the kid gloves come off and McCain’s thirty years in office and the records for such will prove wrong the theory that he is similar to Bush. In November the liberal zombies who only know what they are told to know, only care about what they are told to care about and repeat BS because its their native language will be crying a river when John McCain is elected President of the United States by the American people. Hell thanks to his good pal Pastor Wright, I think Obama should be worrying more about reelection to the Senate than the Presidential race.
Posted by: Wilkins | April 3, 2008, 4:06 am 4:06 am
The teleprompter incident is not nearly as bad as McCain’s Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In other words, he annoys the crap out of me when he misspeaks. Decisive leaders should speak with confidence, not pathetically wander around.
ZOD ’08–”You Have No Choice!”
Posted by: Zod | April 9, 2008, 2:16 pm 2:16 pm