Obama Gives Speech to Huge Crowds, McCain Does Same But Teleprompter Fails

by Rob Walker | October 23, 2008 at 11:53 am

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Barack Obama gave an interesting set of speeches and interviews before he went home to visit his ailing grandmother. In his interview with CBS News he said there was a huge difference between his and McCain's campaign styles:

Here's a link to Obama's speech in Miami, Florida on October 21.

And the transcript of his interview with CBS.

Barack Obama (laughing): Well, look. I - I mean - politics is tough. ... But I will say this: I don't think there's any equivalence between what we've been doing and what John McCain's been doing. ... Witness some of the comments that have been made just over the last several months, his last several weeks, 'Socialistic.' You know, 'Pals around with terrorists.' I mean, just - the kinds of stuff that - that I can't imagine saying about an opponent of mine.

Harry Smith: Whoever gets elected president somehow has to put their arm around the whole country and say, 'We're in this together.'

Meanwhile, McCain's teleprompter broke down, causing the Republican candidate to re-start numerous times during the tail end of his speech.

You can view the relevant portion where the prompter went down here:

Today John McCain stumbled, repeated phrases, read from the page, then looked up to the screen and re-read them.

Maybe I'm being unfair, but this is a man who is running for the top job in the country, one of the most important jobs in the world.

Does his inability to think on his feet, to go off the page, count against him?

This is his pitch to the US electorate about why they should vote for him. He's less than two weeks from the election. Surely he should be able to deliver it without notes?

Frankly today, I cringed when he stumbled, and felt embarrassed for him.