“You didn’t see the teleprompter?” Romney replied. Businessman Herman Cain joked last week that he threw the teleprompter off his campaign bus to “get rid of some dead weight.” And when Mitt Romney wrapped up a town hall meeting in Florida this month, a woman approached him and observed: “You did all of this without a teleprompter. Michele Bachmann says she will never use a teleprompter and often proclaims that if she makes it to the White House, she’ll ban them. But this year, the Republican hopefuls are generally just winging it. Since its invention a halfcentury ago, the teleprompter has been used by presidents and presidential candidates, Republicans and Democrats alike, seeking precision and accuracy in their speeches. It’s a sign that you have handlers behind you telling you what to say.” It’s a sign that you can’t speak on your own two feet. “It’s a negative because it’s a sign of inauthenticity. “If you use it now, you’re like Obama,” Davis said. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in his 2008 presidential run and, until this summer, Republican candidate and former ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. “Obama ruined the teleprompter for the rest of the politicians,” said Fred Davis, a media strategist who advised Sen. If Obama can’t give a two-minute speech without a screen telling him what to say, the critique goes, it’s a sign that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and can’t be trusted to do his job.

Picking up on a theme that has been rippling through GOP circles for two years, Republican presidential candidates are trying to use President Obama’s reliance on teleprompters to deflate one of his biggest strengths - his oratorical skill. So why, on the campaign trail, has the teleprompter instead become a symbol of ineptitude, mocked repeatedly by Republican candidates? It’s one of the very symbols of the presidency - the ultimate accessory to the ultimate bully pulpit, seemingly trumpeting to all that the words being uttered actually matter.

Obama cant talk without a prompter