Tech problems forced Ritter to recite Invesco speech from memory

To give the biggest speech of his life, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter had to work through some unexpected difficulties, the Denver Post reported Thursday.

Ritter's speech at Invesco Field last Thursday before thousands of Democratic National Convention delegates was subsequently panned by some as dull and uninspiring.

But as Ritter told the Post, technical problems forced Ritter to recite most of the address from memory.   

About a third of the way into his speech, the Post reported, Ritter's TelePrompTer sputtered out, leaving him without a script that had been carefully written and edited along with members of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

"It was working, and then it just went bonkers," Ritter told the Post. "It started scrolling about a thousand times faster than normal.

"It finally came back on for the last line of the speech," he continued. "In-between then all it said was, 'Hello, I'm Congressman Ed Perlmutter.' "

Perlmutter was next on the speakers' queue.

But Ritter was used to having to think on the fly from his days as a trial lawyer.

"I wasn't terrified," Ritter told the Post. "It was like someone moving the goal post for a field goal kicker. You're set to kick, and suddenly they move the goal post 25 yards laterally."

Ritter's voice was also noticeably hoarse throughout the speech, thanks to the numerous speeches and media interviews he had given.