Is Dubya Wired for Sound?

I just find it amusing that Bush is now having to fight off wild accusations. Karma's a bitch...



Bush's mystery bulge
The rumor is flying around the globe. Was the president wired during the first debate?

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Dave Lindorff

Oct. 8, 2004  |  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.

Hot on the conspiracy trail, I tried to track down the source of the photo. None of the Bush-is-wired bloggers, however, seemed to know where the photo came from. Was it possible the bulge had been Photoshopped onto Bush's back by a lone conspiracy buff? It turns out that all of the video of the debate was recorded and sent out by Fox News, the pool broadcaster for the event. Fox sent feeds from multiple cameras to the other networks, which did their own on-air presentations and editing.

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.

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."

So what was it? 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.

Mystery-bulge bloggers argue that the president may have begun using such technology earlier in his term. Because Bush is famously prone to malapropisms and reportedly dyslexic, which could make successful use of a teleprompter problematic, they say the president and his handlers may have turned to a technique often used by television reporters on remote stand-ups. A reporter tapes a story and, while on camera, plays it back into an earpiece, repeating lines just after hearing them, managing to sound spontaneous and error free.

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."

Repeated calls to the White House and the Bush national campaign office over a period of three days, inquiring about what the president may have been wearing on his back during the debate, and whether he had used an audio device at other events, went unreturned. So far the Kerry campaign is staying clear of this story. When called for a comment, a press officer at the Democratic National Committee claimed on Tuesday that it was "the first time" they'd ever heard of the issue. A spokeswoman at the press office of Kerry headquarters refused to permit me to talk with anyone in the campaign's research office. Several other requests for comment to the Kerry campaign's press office went unanswered.

As for whether we really do have a Milli Vanilli president, the answer at this point has to be, God only knows.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/08/bulge/
http://www.isbushwired.com/

I saw this too, but my initial assessment was that it was just an amplifier for the news networks to hear him. I figured Kerry probably had one too. But then again, there's already a microphone, so why would he need an amp?

Honestly, it seems like it would be harder to have someone at a debate telling you what to say. You would have to constantly stop, listen, then repeat what was told to you. If anything, it makes you look less credible because you're not really "into the debate." Which may be why Cheney fared so much better than Bush.

Like any good conspiracy theory, it does fill in some holes like why Bush said "Let me finish" when no one was interrupting him and the long pauses (the "My Pet Goat" moments) before answering a question.

Then again, if he did have someone helping him and he still did that badly, he's toast.

Holy shit!

I doubt that he was wired. How could he have performed so badly if someone was feeding him information?

[quote name='coffman']I doubt that he was wired. How could he have performed so badly if someone was feeding him information?[/quote]

Agreed.

There were apparently, by negotiation, no other amps or personal mics other than the ones on the podium. Neither candidate should have had *anything* on them, in the way of mics/receivers/whatever.

I'm curious - it sounds like a conspiracy theory at first, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes, and the more obvious it seems. Is it true? I don't know. I don't think it's going to be proveable. But what I do hope is twofold:

1.) Someone shows up at the second debate with jamming equipment, and turns it on halfway through a Bush response.

2.) The democracts hammer on this point, whether it's true or not. This would be even more damning than the Swift Boat lies, and it has the added benefit of potentially being true. If the shoes were on the other foot, the Republicans would have made this a talking point, and Fox News would be on this 24/7. I say screw it, the Dems need to jump on this like a pack of wolves and not let up. If it's not true, what's the worst that happens? They plant the seed of doubt into the public. If it *is* true... well, then. That would be interesting.

seppo

Why not put the device inside one of the pockets of his suit? If I were going to circumvent the system, I would have put it in the inside pocket of the suit jacket.

it could be his on off switch, or maybe his good evil switch like the Krusty Doll on the Halloween episode

[quote name='Ikohn4ever']it could be his on off switch, or maybe his good evil switch like the Krusty Doll on the Halloween episode[/quote]

:lol: Obviously, it is currently set to evil! Damn that Dick Cheney!

Nah, he's not evil, just dumb. I think he really thinks he is doing the right thing - that's the sad part.

I can definitely do without all the extreme right-wing Christian crap though (note: I am Chrisitian).

[quote name='coffman']Why not put the device inside one of the pockets of his suit? If I were going to circumvent the system, I would have put it in the inside pocket of the suit jacket.[/quote]

Per the debate agreement, I don't think there were supposed to be any cameras behind the candidates which is even funnier because FOX News was doing the pool video for this debate.

More news from Salon:

Bush camp comments on mystery bulge

With speculation swirling that Bush was wired during the first presidential debate, it was probably only a matter of time before the Bush team would have to respond. If the president wasn't set up to channel Rovian assistance for an hour and a half of unscripted back and forth, is there a another explanation for that mysterious bulge that the cameras picked up in the back of Bush's suit?

Rory O'Connor at Media Channel.org successfully reached Mark McKinnon, the Bush campaign's media director, for comment.

"I love this. Am tempted to say, 'I cannot confirm or deny,' and let the story get some legs," McKinnon responded by email to O'Connor's inquiry. (As a top media operative for Bush, McKinnon should probably know that the story has already run a marathon through the blogosphere.) "Or, how about, 'Since we put the metal plate in his head, we have had some measure of success with audio transmissions to the President.' Or, 'Yeah, but it clearly broke down during the debate.' Unfortunately, the truth is not nearly as interesting. The answer is, 'The President has never been assisted by any audio signal.'"

While McKinnon was not without a sense of humor in denying the existence of any audio aid, it's intriguing that he said nothing about what that odd little bulge actually might have been.

With an official denial now on record, O'Connor wonders if anyone who can prove otherwise will step forward: "Any media professionals -- like the 'top Washington editor for Reuters' who reportedly told 'isbushwired' last spring that 'Sure, Bush uses an earpiece sometimes. State of the Union -- he had an earpiece for that. Everybody knows it.' -- please identify yourselves."

I think it's just his bra strap.

That thing just gives him a small electric jolt whenever he forgets his lines, similar to a shock collar on a dog.

[quote name='sblymnlcrymnl']That thing just gives him a small electric jolt whenever he forgets his lines, similar to a shock collar on a dog.[/quote]

That would amount to quite a bit of electricity use!

He is the president, and if he was going to do something like that, he would have had one that was much much smaller.

[quote name='BigNick']He is the president, and if he was going to do something like that, he would have had one that was much much smaller.[/quote]

Yeah, I'm starting to think its a bulletproof vest.
I thought I could make out the outline through his suit.

It's a kevlar/ceramic vest.

He did have a miniature earbud receiver for the second debate. Look at the way his lips kept moving and he never paid attention to anything, and also he was writing a lot,, something he doesn't normally do.