"What the Teleprompter Teaches"

It's not that President Obama uses a teleprompter that gets everyone in a fit. It's that he uses it so often, for speaking occasions that other Presidents haven't.
In defense of (or at least not criticizing) the President, Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson: "Governing is a craft, not merely a talent. It involves the careful sorting of ideas and priorities. And the discipline of writing -- expressing ideas clearly and putting them in proper order -- is essential to governing. For this reason, the greatest leaders have taken great pains with rhetoric. Lincoln continually edited and revised his speeches. Churchill practiced to the point of memorization. Such leaders would not have been improved by being "unplugged." When it comes to rhetoric, winging it is often shoddy and self-indulgent -- practiced by politicians who hear Mozart in their own voices while others perceive random cymbals and kazoos. Leaders who prefer to speak from the top of their heads are not more authentic, they are often more shallow -- not more "real," but more undisciplined.

On the other hand, this lack of extemporaneous speaking ability seems to suggest a lack of original thought, a step beyond Presidents just having speech-writers. Churchill and Lincoln both owned their words and likely never got paragraphs into a speech before realizing it wasn't theirs. It is a glaring lack of leadership qualities for a very visible leadership office.

That is not to say, though, that by virtue of his speaking ability (or lack thereof), President Obama is or isn't a good leader. It is one factor in a panorama of often varying and subjective definitions of leadership. A dissatisfied public can qucikly pierce his media-enabled, invincible public image here.

Let it not be so of the Christian public. We should be humble and respectful, and that is not a suggestion to be discard when the jokes write themselves. A step further, we can learn from this example. The issue of clear communcation is of obvious relevance, culturally and Biblically. Pastors can take heed, as with any in a public speaking role.