"When you make something idiotproof they make better idiots"

Brian Cowen's critics might say that they've heard all of his speeches before. Last night, they would have been right.

As the Irish Taoiseach delivered his St Patrick's Day speech at a White House dinner party, it emerged that he was accidentally reading off the teleprompter one made by President Obama only minutes earlier.

"We begin by welcoming today a strong friend of the United States," he began and continued in that vein for about 20 seconds before - realising he was experiencing more than the usual case of déjà vu - he looked back at the US President and said: "That's your speech!"

Gesturing at the teleprompter, he said: "Why don't these things work for me? Who said these things were idiot-proof?"

Source: Times Online

It's been reported previously in numerous places that Obama uses teleprompters much more frequently than any of the previous presidents. How much of an actual influencer of policy is he, and how much is he just a figurehead?