The Sarah Palin Teleprompter Saga

(ST. PAUL) It's one of those mythologizing details that can help a well-received speech be remembered an epic one: According to RedState, citing "sources close to the McCain campaign," Sarah Palin's teleprompter malfunctioned during her speech last night.

The faulty prompter, RedState reported, forced the Republican vice presidential nominee to recite her speech from memory, with the help of occasional glances at the printed text sitting on the podium.

"Contrast this to Barack Obama who, when last his teleprompter malfunctioned, was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved," wrote Erick Erickson. "Sarah Palin. Winner."

The claim was picked up by the highly-trafficked Drudge Report, immediately launching it into the larger conversation. According to Jonathan Martin at Politico, however, it isn't accurate.

"Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech," Martin wrote. "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."

After Martin's post, Erickson defended his report in an update. "MSNBC and Fox both report that there were problems with the teleprompter," he wrote.

"BTW, I've gotten one more clarification from the McCain campaign: by the end of the speech the problem had been resolved," Erickson added. "But you can clearly see during the middle Palin looked at her text often."