Hey, you think he might be lost without it? The next Abraham Lincoln/Ronald Reagan/FDR!

Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.

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 luck.

Basically he can spout what his handlers write as long as he has something he can read it off of. Notice he looks from side to side during speeches. When he doesn’t have the teleprompter? We get soaring bits of oratory like this:

He’s not a great orator. He’s a great actor. He can read a script better than most.