Obama thanks himself in teleprompter gaffe

Wednesday, March 18. Following last week's revelations that Barack Obama has a teleprompter 'addiction', the President last night fell foul of a teleprompter malfunction that led him to thank himself in front of a live audience.

The President was making a joint appearance with Irish prime minister Brian Cowen at the White House on St Patrick's Day when the small prompting screens both men were using began to mix up the two sets of remarks.

"First, I'd like to say thank you to President Obama!" said President Obama, who went on to remark that Guinness "tastes different in Ireland" - despite the fact that he has never travelled to the country. Cowen also followed the wrong script and spent 20 seconds reciting the exact speech that Obama had just given before stopping, turning to the President and saying: "that's your speech!"

An unfortunate mishap it may have been, but just imagine if it had been George Bush on the receiving end of the malfunction, says the Hillbuzz blog. "Bush would have been excoriated for something like that... this is the sort of thing the MSM [mass media] would have been all over George W Bush for, but Obama gets a free pass on."

FIRST POSTED MARCH 18, 2009