It looks like the great orator--Obama--needs a bit of a crutch when speaking (it appears he's not capable of providing a clear and cogent message without a teleprompter--which suggests he might be a bit of a lightweight).
Excerpt from article:
President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his teleprompter.
Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.
After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19663.html