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September 04, 2008
Categories: Convention
The teleprompter did not break

Sarah Palin delivered a powerful speech last night, but she did not "wing it."

Which is what Erick Erickson, citing sources close to McCain, has written on his blog, RedState.

Erickson writes that "the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Gov. Palin was in the speech."

This claim has been picked up on Drudge and could quickly enter into the insta-mythmaking about a speech that need not be embroidered.

Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech. But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.

Erickson writes that the same malfunction happened during Rudy Giuliani's speech earlier in the night. Again, I watched the teleprompter during this speech, and it worked without problem. Giuliani, as is his wont, simply decided to go off-script and add some new lines, such as one attacking Obama for his "bitter" comments.

These extemporaneous comments, many of which drew huge applause, made the former New York mayor's speech run much longer than planned. So much so that a convention planner confirms that they had to scrap a planned video ahead of Palin's speech.