corrente

Let's see if we can spot anything tonight!

Frankly, I didn't buy the idea that Bush was using an earpiece in the last debate—because whoever was feeding Him His lines had, well, a catastrophic success. Then it occurred to me that, if Bush does indeed have presenile dementia (back), then without the earpiece His performance would have been even worse than it was. Which is a frightening thought.

Anyhow, the fine folks at Salon have been looking into it, and they do make a case that (1) the mysterious Bush Back Bulge really was there, and (2)

To watch the debate again, I ventured to the Web site of the most sober network I could think of: C-SPAN. And sure enough, at minute 23 on the video of the debate, you can clearly see the bulge between the president's shoulder blades.

Jacob McKenna, a spyware expert and the owner of the Spy Store, a high-tech surveillance shop in Spokane, Wash., looked at the Bush image on his computer monitor. "There's certainly something on his back, and it appears to be electronic," he said. McKenna said that, given its shape, the bulge could be the inductor portion of a two-way push-to-talk system. McKenna noted that such a system makes use of a tiny microchip-based earplug radio that is pushed way down into the ear canal, where it is virtually invisible. He also said a weak signal could be scrambled and be undetected by another broadcaster.

Suggestions that Bush may have using this technique stem from a D-day event in France, when a CNN broadcast appeared to pick up -- and broadcast to surprised viewers -- the sound of another voice seemingly reading Bush his lines, after which Bush repeated them. Danny Schechter, who operates the news site MediaChannel.org, and who has been doing some investigating into the wired-Bush rumors himself, said the Bush campaign has been worried of late about others picking up their radio frequencies -- notably during the Republican Convention on the day of Bush's appearance. "They had a frequency specialist stop me and ask about the frequency of my camera," Schechter said. "The Democrats weren't doing that at their convention."
(via Salon (at least get the day pass!))

Well well. An alternative theory (3) is that the Bush Back Bulge is caused by a back brace:

The debate rules, at the Bush campaign's urging, specifically forbid shots of the candidates' backs. Areader speculates that Bush may be wearing some sort of back brace, like the one pictured here. It's plausible, given all the times he has fallen off bikes and Segways.
(via Kos)

Which does raise the interesting question of whether Bush has been taking, um, medication for his back pain—and how He is going to handle medication, or no medication, in a 90-minute standup format.

Watch closely, readers! And send plenty of karmic interference waves in the direction of St. Louis....

UPDATE This is interesting. From Anna's comment at Kos:

And did you notice that JK gave Him a little pat on the back before the debate started?

Just to let Him know....

UPDATE Alert reader Anonymous (not, I think, that Anonymous) comments:

I vote bad suit. It's always looked empty on him anyway.

Heh.