Well, this is ironic. Moments after criticizing President Obama as "charismatic guy with a teleprompter" at the National Tea Party convention tonight, Sarah Palin sat down for a Q&A session—and appeared to read notes written on her hand.

First up, check out Palin's crack at Obama, given during her keynote address.

Now, look at what happened a few minutes after her speech ended, during the Q&A session (the moment in question occurs about 20 seconds into the video).

Do you see what we see? Did this woman seriously write notes on her hand to assist in the answering of questions she was given in advance? And did she do so minutes after criticizing the President for being fond of his teleprompter? *FACEPALM*

And for good measure, here's a video (of a photo, it seems) in which you can clearly see something on Palin's hand during her speech. So, unless she randomly got a henna tattoo in Nashville, it would appear that Palin went the old school cheat sheet route.

Cheating in the worst way possible... going rogue, indeed.

Update, 9:00 AM ET: Via HuffPo, here's confirmation of what we all feared.

It looks like the words Palin has written on her hand are:

  • "Energy"
  • "Budget cuts"
  • "Tax"
  • "Lift American spirits"

This is just straight up EMBARRASSING.

Update, 3:15 PM ET: Via Daily Kos, here's an even closer shot at Palin's hand.

And via YouTube, here's a higher quality video of Palin reading the notes on her hand, as well as a shot of her ink-laden palm.

[First three videos via, via and via]