All this week, conservatives have criticized President Obama for his comments about business during a speech in Roanoke. But at the same time, they wondered, how could the usually smooth Obama slip up so badly?

Judging from video and photos of the event, Obama wasn’t using his teleprompter.  According to the video footage posted below, Obama pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his front shirt pocket at the beginning of his speech, and slowly unfolded it. Throughout the speech, Obama glances down at his sheet of paper, rather than the usual mechanical side-to-side head turns from screen to screen.

Wide-angle photos of the event show no sign of the familiar twin-screens that typically follow Obama everywhere. Instead, a white sheet of paper is seen at the podium.

According to a senior administration official, who spoke to the Hill, the missing teleprompters at recent campaign events are part of a strategy that is “less to do with image and more to do with upping the tempo” at campaign events, creating more unscripted moments.

While speaking his usual lines about wealthy Americans paying more taxes, the president stopped in mid-sentence to explain why he believed that they should pay more taxes.

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen," he said off-script.

Obama’s Roanoke event was his third campaign event of the day, which was scheduled to begin at 7:25 p.m.