The "transmitter thing"

[johnnie]

Has this story been picked up by anyone other than Solon.com? Any other links?

[livetohike]

1. Lynn Cullen has been talking about it all morning

She had been a TV reporter and she said she would wear them all the time. She believes this is what Bush was wearing.

[Enrico]

2. It was on Washington Post

Search for it on Washington Post... its there

[tjdee]

3. Barbara Walters showed The View's audience her wireless earpiece.

According to another DUer, she did this.

I didn't realize the bulge was getting that much play, actually.

That would be HILARIOUS if it's true.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. It's everywhere, even Leno

goofed on it last night with John Edwards.

[Rockholm]

5. It was on Star 93.7fm Radio in Boston this morning!

During their morning show, they were all over it! Way to guy guys! I LOVE you Karen Blake!

[johnnie]

6. Thank you all

I'm just asking because a guy here at work asked if the story was anywhere besides my "liberal websites".

[papau]

7. Bush Bulge has been around for a long time - Is it possible drug therapy?

[highplainsdem]

16. Stories about Karen Hughes mouthing Bush's words

have been around since the 1990s, too, and when I was Googling this a few nights ago I found an article Michelle Cottle wrote for The New Republic in November 1999, describing Hughes's behavior at a campaign stop at a school in Delaware. Hughes would work the room part of the time, but whenever Bush was taking questions, whether from teachers and parents, or from a 6th grader interviewing him, Hughes immediately went to the front of the media pack, directly in Bush's line of sight. Afterward, while Bush was taking a few questions from reporters before leaving the school, Cottle noticed that Hughes was mouthing Bush's unscripted answeres word for word, a half-beat BEFORE he spoke. There was no direct suggestion that Hughes was prompting him, but I can't help wondering if Cottle had some suspicions and included this detail to see if anyone else would corroborate it.

[rwork]

8. I don't know,

but a couple of things. bush* left the stage in a hurry. He did'nt mingle with the crowd. The bulge on his back would have been pretty obvious.The interference on his side of the split screen.And he was very accustomed to using an earpiece. Such as having foreign lanquages interpreted in his ear.B. Walters said they use them on a daily basis on her TV shows.They wanted no cameras in back of the candidates.On the night of his only prime time news conference he seemed to be listening to someone prompting him.

[louis-t]

9. I still say it's a back brace

I think he was wired ("let me finish" convinced me), but I think what we're seeing is a back brace. shrub's handlers cannot admit that he wears one because that would undermine their phony portrayal of him as a macho, athletic super-hero.

[endnote]

20. but most back support devices are for LUMBAR vertebrae

Which is much lower then where the rectangle is...

[louis-t]

10. I still say it's a back brace.

I think he was wired ("let me finish" convinced me), but I think what we're seeing is a back brace. shrub's handlers cannot admit that he wears one because that would undermine their phony portrayal of him as a macho, athletic super-hero.

[livetohike]

11. Interesting

That would fit with the whole image making and it's just hard work!

[polmaven]

13. Nope!

There is a very simple explanation about whom he was admonishing to let him finish.

He was, of course, quite obviously speaking to God. We all know that God told him to go into both Afghanistan and Iraq, and, now that he has been such a huge success in both places, he is plainly on an equal footing with God, so this time, when God made a suggestion, Bush was understandably irritated at the interference. After all, he had been doing a stellar job until that point, had he not?

All this talk about human interference is blasphemy! It is only God to whom George W. Bush could possibly be wired!

Tsk!

[louis-t]

17. Expect a new ad..

"George B*sh, wired to God".

[highplainsdem]

12. British papers and TV have picked it up.

But what I've found most interesting is the explanation given at http://www.cryptome.org/bush-bulge.htm by James Atkinson, a security expert, who says that Bush was wearing both body armor and a wireless system. I started a thread here about that last night, at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1046994 . Also mentioned a photo of Bush taken at the National Prayer Breakfast in February (someone else posted a blowup of the photo in that thread). There's apparently a device of some type in his ear, and it has some distinctive vertical lines on it. I emailed Atkinson, sent him the link to that topic, to ask him about the photo. Probably he's too busy to answer my email, but if he does reply and can identify the earpiece, I'll post about it here.

He's been quoted in some news stories about this, and Salon.com has been quoting another technical expert who also says Bush was wired.

Editing to add a link to one of the news stories referring to Atkinson:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/12/bush_wireless_coaching/

[Mizmoon]

14. Letterman had a game called "Guess the Bulge"

It wasn't that funny, tho.

[Peachhead22]

15. On CNN's morning show

Jack Cafferty kept joking about the "radar dish" on Shrub's back. Joking about it, not a conspiracy theory about him having one. Leno, Letterman, CNN, last night's MSNBC with Tweety. It looks like it's becoming conventional wisdom that Shrub cheated, and still lost badly in the debates. :)

Hopefully SNL will do something with it next Saturday. Then it'll be even more cemented as CW.

[bif]

18. Here's a whole blog devoted to it

http://www.isbushwired.com/

[bif]

19. It's his bulletproof vest

that's what several people at work are guessing.

[MallRat]

25. Bush spokespeople have explicitly said that he is NOT wearing a vest.

That's what's been fueling the speculation. If they had never said this, the issue would probably be dead.

-MR

[Stuckinthebush]

21. On MSNBC now (11:45 CST)

[BlueNomad]

22. It was funny on Jay Leno...

when Edwards said in mock surprise, "Oh, I just thought that was his battery...then added,.....you know what JOHN KERRY should tomorrow night? He should come across the stage and pat him down, pat him down good....That was totally unexpected and hilarious.....


wink--I think it came from the DU

[genius]

23. Leno asked about it.

[Peachhead22]

24. One thing that's bothering me though

Lots of people are covering it. It's becoming a common perception that, yes he was wearing a transducer, but then the common TV response seems to be "Ha ha...so what?" Too many TV people aren't adding that a transducer means Bush was cheating! Tranducers/ear pieces/ transmitters/teleprompters, all that stuff was blatantly against the rules! Whether or not he cheated well or whether or not it helped him is totally irrelevant, and many TV people seem to be non-plussed because * lost anyways.