12:26pm UK, Wednesday March 18, 2009
A teleprompt blunder has led to Barack Obama thanking himself in a speech at the White House in a St Patrick’s Day celebration.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address in Washington when he realised it all sounded a bit too familiar.
It was. He was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.
Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: “That’s your speech.”
A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.
Mr Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the “teleprompt president” over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.
Earlier in the day, the president claimed an Irish ancestry, saying his mother’s family could be traced back to Ireland.
He joked to Cowen: “We may be cousins. We haven’t sorted that through yet.”
Speaking in the Oval Office, he told the Irish premier:”Not all Americans are Irish but all Americans support those who stand on the side of peace and peace will prevail.”
The fountains at the White House were dyed green for the day at the request of the First Lady and guests at the cocktail reception drank green sparkling wine from a Californian vineyard.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon from Northern Ireland and Maggie McCarthy, a traditional Irish dancer and musician from Cork, and the vocal group Celtic Thunder all attended.
Mr Obama joked about the free-flowing bar and warned his guests not to wear lampshades on their heads in front of the cameras.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Barack-Obama-Thanks-Himself-In-Teleprompt-Blunder-During-Address-With-Irish-PM-On-St-Patricks-Day/Article/200903315243932?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15243932_Barack_Obama_Thanks_Himself_In_Teleprompt_Blunder_During_Address_With_Irish_PM_On_St_Patricks_Day
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