The point you make is correct - most politicians don't write their own speeches. But Obama does (at least the major ones; he doesn't have time to write all of his own speeches while campaigning), which

From the Washington Post website:

San Francisco: I've heard Obama writes his own speeches. Did Obama write that speech himself?

Robert G. Kaiser: He did, and I can't tell you how impressive that is to cynical old reporters like me. Washington has very few personalities left who read their own books, do their own thinking, write their own speeches. But Obama not only reads the books, he writes them--and his speeches.

Chuck Hagel is another senator who does this; it can happen on either side of the aisle, but I wish it happened a lot more often!

I tried to post the source for the excerpt above but it got caught by the spam filter.

Not as I'm aware... just places where he was working without one. And as I said, he fell on his butt, every single time.

Was he making a prepared statement, or having to come up with what he wanted to say on demand?

Have we had instances where he was delivering a prepared speech with a malfunctioning teleprompter?

Not as I'm aware... just places where he was working without one. And as I said, he fell on his butt, every single time.

Many people have amazing ideas but don't always know how to translate them into language for broad audiences. Speaking and writing are two very different skill sets.

Many leaders - whether business or political simply don't have the time. It takes time to write a good speech -especially if using facts and figures and quotations, too.

Most provide me with talking points or an overall view of what they want to say.

Some interesting facts:

In 2002, the teleprompter was not working when Bill Clinton gave his State of the Union. Only he and his speech writers knew. Pretty amazing.

Barack has been using a 26-year old speech writer who was being mentored by Ted Sorenson (JFK's speech writer). Obama wrote his 2004 DNC Speech, the race speech, and the 2008 DNC speech. I am quite sure he had his speechwriting team - not just his advisors review it. He is an unusally good and rather poetic writer as demonstrated by his first book. (the second was unfortunately politcal pandering and lost the spirit of the first.)

Peggy Noonan ("it's over.") wrote all of Reagan's speeches. Including the post-Challenger one that most think was his best ever.

Hillary Clinton wrote her own DNC speech - many thought it the best in her career. She is also the one that came up with Bill's line, "I'll always believe in a place called hope."

Speech writers also miss the mark sometimes. While Bob Shrum wrote Ted Kennedy's famous "The hope never dies" speech he didn't do so well for John Kerry.

Bobby Kennedy spoke extemporaneously when perhaps he gave the best speech of his life -including quotations from Greek poetry - when he received the news that MLK had been shot. He was neither a great speaker or a great writer but the authenticity of his words overcame with absolute magnificence both of these limitations.

The words he'd use may be to your approval but half of speechmaking is delivery... and he gets lost without his prompter.

Have we had instances where he was delivering a prepared speech with a malfunctioning teleprompter?

Obama would have likely done fine. Again, Obama's speaking problem isn't remembering what to say, it's determining what to say.

I doubt that.
The words he'd use may be to your approval but half of speechmaking is delivery... and he gets lost without his prompter.

Well, after more reports came out the story did change a bit...apparently the prompter was getting ahead of her, by not stopping during the pauses for applause. And again, I wonder how Obama would fare there. I tend to doubt he'd have done as well.

Obama would have likely done fine. Again, Obama's speaking problem isn't remembering what to say, it's determining what to say. Once the speech has been written, and he's familiarized himself with it, I don't think he'd have a problem if the teleprompter got ahead of him. He may improvise the words, but he'd already know what he was going to say.

If it were true Bithead would have been incapable of saying it.

Well, after more reports came out the story did change a bit...apparently the prompter was getting ahead of her, by not stopping during the pauses for applause. And again, I wonder how Obama would fare there. I tend to doubt he'd have done as well.

But politicians are not, at least in theory, mere showmen.

Not mere showmen, but showmen nonetheless. It is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for leadership in this media driven age. Stagecraft has been recognized as an important element of statecraft since at least the time of Elizabeth I, and probably long before that.

Kondracke: blah, blah... of course, she didn't write it...
Easton: blah, blah... not that she actually wrote it, of course...
Hume: Hey, why do you guys keeping saying that? Of course she didn't write her speech, but no one does.
Barnes: blah, blah... well, when she made that obscure reference to something foreign, that certainly displayed her knowledge of the subject! Take that Democrats!

I've said it before - Fox News is the best entertainment value anywhere.

very good point. While "Hockey Mom Palin" may be a single person, "Vice President Candidate Palin" is not.

So this means Slickwilly Jr is any were between 200 to 300 liberal bullsh-t artists instead of one.

oops, I meant donkey poop artists, I have been forgetting to be civil lately, my apologies to all you Marxists, Nazi's, terrorist sympathizers and Godless evolutionary baby murders.

I don't want to hurt any of your feelings so if have please forgive me.

Are you claiming he write these “speeches” without letting anyone proof read or give other input into them?

If so, I would find such action as foolish and in poor judgment. I will explain that further if some don’t understand why that is foolish.

A candidate just reading off a prepare speech is not impressive to me. However I suspect much of the time they are like many Generals. They say what they want in a speech, how they want to say it, and review and revise the drafts until it close to what they want. Most of the work (proof reading, fact checking, sentence structure, flow, etc) is done by their staff.

Isn’t it amazing how Obama has such a hard time when he isn’t going off a teleprompter? That is why he avoids doing more town hall debates with McCain.

dbt: If it were true Bithead would have been incapable of saying it.

Secondly, why is it that it's acceptable to employ someone with greater expertise in a particular area to help the politician do their job, except when it comes to writing a speech?

A very good point. While "Hockey Mom Palin" may be a single person, "Vice President Candidate Palin" is not. That's just a basic function of management in any environment.