THE CHEATER
Bush was apparently wired in the third debate too. Even with all the commotion about it, it was not possible for them to play it cool and allow Bush to do the debate without the bulge, the bulge they tell you is not there. It would be inconceivable for Bush to do a debate with Kerry without the extra advantage of a prompter. He still looks terrible, but imagine how he would perform without it.Click here for a whole gallery of Bush Bulges.
September 30, 2004
Bush Wearing a Wire? A lot of people are speculating over whether Bush was wearing a prompting device during the debate. Not unlikely given the need for such a thing given Bush's lack of ability to really match wits with Kerry, and the Bush family's CIA mentality and love for all things covert and ways to get around the rules. The sad thing for the Bush team is that it couldn't help very much, and likely would -- or did -- only add to his confusion under the pressure of having to perform live when he's rarely ever had to think on his feet. One woman reported that, when the broadcast cameras switched to a rear-angle shot she noticed a small bulge near President Bush's waist area as well as what appeared to be the outline of a wire going up Bush's back beneath his coat. For the record. The photo of Bush from the back during the third debate is here.
October 12, 2004
Is Bush Wired (cont'd) -- Speculation on a possible transmitter aid used by Bush surfaces in the international press: The prompting device controversy goes on. Look at these pictures from Bobfertik.com. "First a T then a hump." Here is the picture of the lump on Bush's back during the second debate from the Associated Press. Australia's The Age: "Bush's campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt told the Washington Post the claims were "preposterous", but declined to elaborate or to suggest what could have produced the unusual photo. The president's tailor, Georges de Paris, who made the suit, said the bulge was nothing more than a fold along the jacket's back seam, accentuated when the president crossed his arms and leaned forward on the lectern." "Was the President wired up for TV?": This is London Bush's tailor is the latest fall guy. He's claiming his $5,000 suit just looks all rumply in back. The Scotsman Bush interpreter says Bush uses an earpiece. "During those 90 minutes, President Bush not only covered all the points, he covered them quite well and without any notes! Not once during the entire meeting did he look at any notes or receive cues from anyone present in discussing the Indonesian political situation with depth and intelligence. I was astonished! "How could this be?" I asked myself. It was a huge surprise. I concluded either that Bush was much more intelligent than we had been led to believe, or that somehow someone was feeding answers to him through a hidden earpiece. At the time, I really didn't know which of these was true. Having worked directly with President Bush twice since then, and having additionally talked with many of my fellow interpreters who have worked directly with him, I am now certain that he could not have had that much knowledge of Indonesia. He doesn't even read the daily newspaper to keep up with what's being reported in the press. I am convinced that he must have been using some sort of earpiece through which someone was telling him what to say."
October 13, 2004
Wind-Up Commander in Chief
The Bush clan -- especially this new generation of Nixon alumni with George W. as their dunce front man -- never ceases to amaze with the extent of its bizarre antics. This thing about the bulge in Bush's back and the odd way that it seems totally plausible that it's a prompting device -- who would have thought? This is truly a sci-fi presidency. This is more outrageously nutty than a Kurt Vonnegut story, but of course it's deadly serious because so many people's lives are at stake. It all fits together so perfectly, all we know about Bush's life, his gaming the system throughout school, the military, his "business ventures", the whole CIA, pro-Nazi history of the family -- why should it be in the slightest implausible that Bush would choose to use a prompting device that could protect him from having to ever face real questions about his job as president without some help. Now people are selecting public domain pics that we have seen before, but suddenly now that it is pointed out, there is indeed a rectangular bulge on his back in many of them. An unmistakable, geometrically perfect rectangle, quite large and prominent on his back. How very strange!
This opens a window upon a whole different kind of a presidency than most ever imagined before. Sure, it was clear he was a puppet in some ways, it was never clear how far it went. But now we see evidence of something unexplained, and the theory put forth to explain it is not conclusive by any means. But it is plausible. So much so that it is easy to feature it, and imagine the Bush presidency with that added component. It's not really much of a jump, but it's just such a striking detail.
Now that people seem to be onto it, what must the White House be doing? They must be excreting bricks. Again, all they would have to do would be to explain it. "The president has a back brace for a slipped disk." But they seem unable to do that kind of thing. There was the outrageous explanation for how he got the baseball bat lump under his eye, the choking on the pretzel story. There's the refusal to make any effort to set the record straight about Bush's lost year in his military career.
So will this just be another of myriad elephants in the room in the weird Bushworld we are citizens of? In the grand array of Bush crimes, it's not much. But it is a singular historical event. That cannot be denied. We are truly in Looney Toons now.
Check out: Dave Lindorff: "A Milli Vanilli President" on In These Times Poetry Corner -- Robo Bush.
