In April, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) felt comfortable using his Twitter account to say he believes President Obama is "stupid." Today, the five-term Republican senator added some related thoughts.
Note that this is Grassley's official, verified account. It's not, in other words, some random 12-year-old tweeter or a Democrat hoping to make the Iowan look ridiculous. Unless his account was hacked -- and given Grassley's legendary propensity for saying dumb things on Twitter, that seems unlikely -- the senator actually published this, on purpose.
Now, I realize it's not worth getting worked up every time some strange politician says something asinine through social media, but there are a few salient angles to keep in mind.
First, teleprompter jokes were stale in 2010, and now they're just lazy and kind of pathetic. Republicans don't have to like President Obama, but to keep insisting he's not smart, because he, like all modern presidents, sometimes uses a teleprompter, is ridiculous. (I've long suspected there's a subtle racism to the right's preoccupation with Obama and teleprompters -- as if our first African-American president only seems intelligent because others are putting words in his mouth, and he couldn't possibly be brilliant on his own.)
Second, Grassley's cheap rhetoric is a reminder that elder statesmen no longer exist in any meaningful sense in Republican politics, and that's a genuine shame. The GOP used to cultivate a reputation as the "grown-up" party; now it's the party filled with clownish antics from confused senators like Chuck Grassley. It's a sad development.
Third, Grassley is probably about as observant as he is classy -- which is to say, he's neither -- but Mitt Romney speaks with a teleprompter all the time.
Associated Press
Associated Press
Getty Images
Getty Images
In fact, it turns out, Romney's picky about his teleprompter.
And here's the kicker : there's nothing wrong with any of this. If Romney has a specific, pre-written message he wants to share with the public, there's no reason he shouldn't be able to read it from a teleprompter. I didn't care that Bush and Cheney used teleprompters; I didn't care that Reagan and Bush used teleprompters. Candidates used to read speeches on paper; now they read them on screens. No one above a junior-high-school level should find this the least bit funny.
Maybe someone of Grassley's staff should take away his social-media access until he grows up?
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In a debate they might make up a flow chart for prompter operator to follow. If they ask this question put up page 26 of Power Point for the talking point it references.
Wow, think of all the fun a hacker could have with that.
Why didn't he just tweet what he really wanted to say?
"N*GGERS ARE DUMB AM I RITE?? VOTE RMONEY."
Look, Barack Obama faced them down in their own venue, off the cuff and without a prompter, and handed them their asses. When they invited him to a Republican retreat in Baltimore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y04g6OPLnQ&feature=related
So naturally, dude cant think on his feet.
No, of course not. Because that's not what law school at Harvard trains you for. And that's not what a community organizer has to do when faced with irate or hostile individuals on one side or another at meetings they convene to resolve disputes. Nor does a lawyer need any ability of that sort when faced in court with an opposing counsel who is determined to refute their client's case point by point. Of course not.
Clint didn't need no stinking teleprompter.. But maybe someone should have prompted him that as an uptighty whitey righty he should be proud of his fellow duplicitous morons for stopping Obama's promises,,, to persue a liberal agenda. Yeegads, there's stoopid and then there's bizarrely stoopid.
He's been a Senator for decades. Ergo, he knows how Senators used to behave and conduct themselves professionally. No elder statesman indeed!
He knows about teleprompter use by politicians. There is simply no other foundation to his comments, seems to me, than the fact that he is being racist. Conciously or not, the man perceives Obama differently enough than normal (since Obama uses teleprompters no more than anyone else) that it must be...by process of elimination...racism.
How can he say Obama is stupid? there is far too much obvious evidence to the contrary. Obama on talk shows even...no teleprompter there. No teleprompter at press conferences, few that there are. Plenty of unscripted events. Anyone who thinks Obama is less verbally fluent than Romney, let alone calls Obama stupid, must be racist in my mind. Or so utterly biased politically that something is wrong with THEIR minds.
People who say this are correct. Never thought of it before, but it's clear in reading the article and your comments....this is a hidden racial thing. Because never before or since Obama took office was any other politician skewered for teleprompter use and Obama neither stumbles nor uses the prompter more than any other national politician. Taunting him about teleprompter use is almost always tied not to that he mispeaks but that he lacks intellect.
That is measurably and unbiasedly false...honors from Harvard Law and employment at major law school as Professor prove this.
No other major politician who was demonstratably reasonably intelligent EVER has been labled this way. SInce Obama is the only major national politician who is BLACK in the last decade, there seems to be a relationship that is VERY suspicious of causalty
Obama graduated Harvard Magna cum Laude. A rare honour from one of the acknowledged best schools in the world. Affirmative Action can get you INTO a good school, but it can neither *keep* you there nor graduate you with high honours. THAT, you must do for yourself. And our President has demonstrably done so.
Chuck Grassley is a @!$%#-kicking moron from Iowa, he doesn't hold a @!$%#ing candle to the President.
Just saying..
Grassley is "stupid" and he is an example of someone calling the kettle black!
If Romney wasn't using a "telepromter" he would not have made it throught the primaries because he can't remember on his own what he is for or against.
I think we can safely conclude from this idiotic tweet that Chuckles Grassley is an old fool.
Aha! No wonder Mitt and company keep putting their foot in their mouth, no wonder they refuse to explain any of their plans--they refuse to take time to prepare themselves for the audience of drones they know will agree that getting rid of Obama is the only real issue.
Oooops you found them! Wow so he actually reads his blurbs? Why does he make himnself look stupid anyway?
Gawd these guys are nuts!
If there was only a photo of Grassely giving a speech with a teleprompter.....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iowapolitics/2972094707/
Poor Chuck has trouble with the math, too. In Jan '09 he said he agreed with about 90% of the stimulus bill; his proposal to extend the Alternative Minimum Tax was thereafter adopted; so how did he vote on the final package? Against, of course. So much for reaching across the aisle.
Obama could walk on water and the R's would say he's just too lazy to swim...
Steve, it's pretty obvious you don't follow Chuck Grassley on Twitter. His staff probably hate him and want him out of office or they would have taken away his internet access a long time ago. Either Grassley is fast falling into senility, or he's a master humourist who's planning to publish his brilliant account of how he punked - no, PWND - the entire InterNetz, not to mention that portion of the electorate whose representative he claims to be.