Salon: Bush's mystery bulge (Was he wired for debate?)

[kskiska]

The rumor is flying around the globe. Was the president wired during the first debate?



Was President Bush literally channeling Karl Rove in his first debate with John Kerry? That's the latest rumor flooding the Internet, unleashed last week in the wake of an image caught by a television camera during the Miami debate. The image shows a large solid object between Bush's shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer.

The president is not known to wear a back brace, and it's safe to say he wasn't packing. So was the bulge under his well-tailored jacket a hidden receiver, picking up transmissions from someone offstage feeding the president answers through a hidden earpiece? Did the device explain why the normally ramrod-straight president seemed hunched over during much of the debate?

Bloggers are burning up their keyboards with speculation. Check out the president's peculiar behavior during the debate, they say. On several occasions, the president simply stopped speaking for an uncomfortably long time and stared ahead with an odd expression on his face. Was he listening to someone helping him with his response to a question? Even weirder was the president's strange outburst. In a peeved rejoinder to Kerry, he said, "As the politics change, his positions change. And that's not how a commander in chief acts. I, I, uh -- Let me finish -- The intelligence I looked at was the same intelligence my opponent looked at." It must be said that Bush pointed toward Lehrer as he declared "Let me finish." The green warning light was lit, signaling he had 30 seconds to, well, finish.

(snip)

Bloggers stoke the conspiracy with the claim that the Bush administration insisted on a condition that no cameras be placed behind the candidates. An official for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which set up the lecterns and microphones on the Miami stage, said the condition was indeed real, the result of negotiations by both campaigns. Yet that didn't stop Fox from setting up cameras behind Bush and Kerry. The official said that "microphones were mounted on lecterns, and the commission put no electronic devices on the president or Senator Kerry." When asked about the bulge on Bush's back, the official said, "I don't know what that was."

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/08/bulge/index.html

[wtmusic]

1. There needs to be a point-blank question tomorrow

If this got out Bush would be toast.

[feistydem]

4. Oh how I wish that were true... but if this man can lie us into a bloody

war and get away with it and if Cheney can lie lie lie in his debate with Edwards and get away with it, why would Bush be able to get away with wearing a communication device in his debate and get away with it?

Didn't do him much good in the end anyway.

Maybe tomorrow they will just go with offstage cue cards for the big dope and forget the hightech gadgets.

[wtmusic]

6. St Louis DUers/Radio enthusiasts...fire up your jammers

and get down to Washington U!! :evilgrin:

[Red_Viking]

2. The dude wears a bullet proof vest almost always

Because you know, the world is safer without Saddam and stuff.

As much as I'd like to believe he's a big fat cheater, and trust me, I'd readily buy it if someone offered proof, this is probably His Nibs' bullet-proof vest.

Anyone else have other thoughts? I'm ready with the tinfoil. :P

RV

[wtmusic]

3. That's a mighty strange lump for a vest n/t

[HamstersFromHell]

8. That's where the buckles and padlocks go.

They just have to cut the sleeves off so he can suit up for public appearances.

Afterwards, they just tether him to the closest hard point till he quits foaming at the mouth.

[BUSHOUT]

16. I've never worn a vest, but....

Some say the bulge could be a ceramic plate embedded in the vest.

IMO we should step over these conspiracy theories and concentrate on talking about what we KNOW, caues it's more than enough to beat Bush!

[w13rd0]

5. Pretty bad...

...when Bush has to cheat in order to suck. I would think he'd want to forcefully say that he doesn't get things whispered in his ear, that he's stupid all on his own.

[Inland]

12. Bush was ready to give a brilliant dissertation but some idiot

kept whispering "its hard, its hard" in his earpiece.

[otohara]

7. President Milli Vanilli

ha, ha, ha....

[salinen]

9. * has used a mystery bulge

once before on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln.

[Inland]

10. Nobody is going to post the picture of Bush in the aviator costume?

[Inland]

11. Too bad Bush tuned into Cubs radio programming, cuz he sucked

Seriously, what part of the debate do you think Bush was fed through the earpiece? "Its hard"?

[Keirsey]

13. another time

On June 5th, 2004, President* Bush spoke in Paris, France. Bush's speech was recorded live by virtually the entire media worldwide. On this recording, you can hear an off-camera voice loudly telling President Bush what to say. You can clearly hear the voice speaking first, then President Bush attempts to mimic the very words spoken by the off-camera voice. You can even hear the off-camera voice telling President Bush which reporters to take questions from, whereupon Bush picks those named reporters. The off-camera voice continues to tell Bush what to say in response to the reporters' questions.

http://www.legitgov.org/essay_harold_bush_cheated_100704.html

[diabhal]

14. Can we email this article around?

I wondered if the mainstream press would pick up on this and Salon, while not exactly the NY Post, is certainly getting there. So can we all make an effort to send the link and text of the Salon article to as many media outlets / online newspapers as possible? We have to beat the Republicans at their own game of pushing a niche story into the mainstream.

If this is TRUE and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it is, then it is a MASSIVE scandal and one which will single handedly sink Bush.

[PATRICK]

17. Other options

an air-conditioning anti-sweat unit, his cross to bear so some subliminal message can impress religious fanatics, spinal support, spinal injection
unit, bra to appeal to the transvestite vote, a Kennedy-like back brace, a Puppet Master symbiote.

When was the last time Bush was photographed without a shirt anyway?

[RedEarth]

15. Here's a DU post that has some interesting clips of bush during the

debate and also during a speech....

DU post wondering if bush is wired...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=989255


DU posts with clips of bush...



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=989255&mesg_id=989349&page=


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=989255&mesg_id=992487&page=

[JPZenger]

18. That's an Electronic Control Module

That's not a microphone - it would be much smaller.

That is the Electronic Control Module that Rove has connected into Bush's spinal column. (Anyone see Spiderman 2?)

Seriously, I'd like to hear from people with some expertise in bullet proof vests regarding whether that bulge could be part of a vest. There is no obvious sign that Bush wears a bullet proof vests for his big outdoor appearances when there is much more risk. He was inside an auditorium where everyone went through metal dectectors.

[phantom power]

19. It would explain some of those long, pregnant pauses at

the beginning of his replies.

[megatherium]

20. let's get a radio scanner

and see what frequency Bush is receiving his coaching on.

Years ago, there was a faith healer named Peter Popoff whose stage act involved receiving "words of power" from the Lord concerning illnesses of persons in the audience. Noted debunker James Randi observed that Popoff was using an earphone. Using a radio scanner, Randi found out that Popoff was receiving FM broadcasts from his wife, who fed him info about ill audience members that was collected by confederates beforehand. Randi approached Johnny Carson with this discovery, and Carson invited Popoff on the Tonight Show. He asked Popoff about his "words of power" and Popoff claimed they were indeed supernatural; whereupon Carson showed a segment from Popoff's TV show with his wife's transmissions as a voice-over. For these efforts, Randi was given a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

[lolly]

21. Recognize the Tactics Here?

It's interesting that Salon is using the "rumors are flying" tactic.

About time we used the "Drudge" tactic--news doesn't have to be news, or even verified, as long as you can say the "real" news is that people are SAYING--whatever it is that you want spread around.

At the very least, maybe if wingnuts start falling victim to this, maybe more people will start to look more critically at those "People are saying that Kerry didn't really earn his medals . . ." pseudo-stories.

At best, of course, it will turn out to be true--and I'll have to agree with those who point out that we should be lucky enough to have AWOL getting more help from whoever helped him last week!