In the days since Gawker caught Sarah Palin with crib notes scribbled on her palm during her weekend speech at the National Tea Party Convention, (“Energy, Budget Tax Cuts, Lift American Spirits”) a particularly funny bit of irony after she criticized Obama for his constant use of a TelePrompter, the cheat sheet sight-gag has been irresistible to anyone in front of a television camera.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell showed the camera her inkstained hand twice, on “Morning Joe” and then on “The Daily Rundown.” Eric Bolling wrote “Sarah 2012” on his palm during Fox Business Networks “Happy Hour,” Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert could not let the gaffe go without their own on-air handy reminders: to make faces and curse in Stewart’s case, and to remind himself where his thumb is located in Colbert’s case.
Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs became the latest to jump in on the “Palm Pilot” trend when he showed the press corps his own checklist. It read:
“Bread, Milk, Eggs, Hope, Change”
TV Newser has a collection of all the handsy hilarity here.
Palin used hand notes in a speech to thousands at a convention. Obama used a Teleprompter in a speech to pre-pubescent children. The disparity in satire (particularly in light of the intellectual claims made for the president as opposed to the lack thereof for Palin) of the latter by the usual provincial DC snarks like Andrea Mitchell simply gains support for Palin - proof that the DC elite, not just the big banks, are the targets of a fair amount of public disgust at the moment. Palin actually likes being condescended to by media folk whose 'intelligence' consists of robotically mouthing the DC cocktail-party chat of a class of folks who are narrow - and worthy as objects of ridicule - as Sarah Palin's following.
#1 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Wed 10 Feb 2010 at 12:47 PM
Obama used a Teleprompter in a speech to pre-pubescent children.
Speaking of robotically mouthing things: You know, don't you, that this is not actually true.
#2 Posted by Mollie, CJR on Wed 10 Feb 2010 at 01:33 PM