White House press spokesman (and professional comedian) Robert Gibbs (pictured below)
played point and counter-point with Sarah Palin this week over the revelation that Palin had notes penned on her hand during her speech at the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, a cure little rebuttal to the criticism of President Obama's dependence on the TelePrompter.
Cute, but the fact is that effective and imaginative use of notes takes more skill than reading something off a screen. As a teacher, I am aware of various techniques to use notes during a lecture. For a speaker who gets out from behind the podium, tiny note cards can be strategically positioned around the speaker's space. If using overheads, they can be written in pencil on cardboard overhead borders. The list goes on.
At any rate, this is not a major development in the war of ideas. However, I think Gibbs may have hit onto something; now he can write notes on his hand to better answer reporters' questions, something he has a lot of trouble doing. For example, he could write on his hand things like;
"I don't know."
"I'll have to get back to you on that, Jake."
"I would refer you to what I said yesterday."
"C'mon, Helen!"
Everything she has to say is nothing more than simplistic talking points. And she needs to write that stuff on her hand? Is it really so hard to remember?
ReplyDeleteLance,
ReplyDeleteDo you give a lot of speeches? Have you ever used a lesson plan in your claSS, OR DO YOU JUST WALK IN AND WING IT?
Honestly? I usually walk in and wing it. I didn't do that my first year, but by this point I'm pretty much just building off things I did before, and I walk in with a rough idea of what I want to do and then take it from there.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think that with those talking points, she'd kind of have them down by now. Then again, this is the woman who didn't know what magazines and newspapers she reads.
I guess Palin does not understand satire and she complains about telaprompter, what a hypocrite. Palin’s hand job just shows all of us what kind of dullard we are up against, I have not seen this since junior high. WOW and some call her a leader….please.
ReplyDelete