THE EARPIECE….The internet is your go-to medium for news of the weird, and this weekend’s clear winner in the world of weird speculation was the buzz about George Bush’s earpiece.
It all started when Bush looked up halfway though an answer during Thursday’s debate and snapped petulantly, “Let me finish.” This is a trademark Bush line and normally wouldn’t draw any comment except for one thing: no one had interrupted him. He had plenty of time left, Kerry hadn’t said anything, and Jim Lehrer hadn’t said anything either. So who was he talking to?
The theory making the rounds is that he was wearing an implanted earpiece of some kind and was reacting to advice from whatever handler was on the other end. The hard evidence for this is approximately zero, but it did bring back memories of an odd incident a few months ago: Bush was at a press conference with Jacques Chirac and really was wearing an earpiece, and it appeared that his responses to questions were being fed to him a few moments before the words came out of his mouth. You could hear it on every network that carried the event.
And for even more weirdness, there’s the mystery of the strange lump in the back of his jacket. It’s been there before at press conferences, and it was there again at the debate (Digby has a picture). What is it?
Weird, weird, weird. But I’m sure there’s a good explanation that doesn’t involve tinfoil hats. Comments are open.
