Little Voices

TalkLeft mentioned during the debate how wierd it was for Bush to say "let me finish" when nobody had interrupted him. I noticed it too and thought he had just had a bit of a brain lapse and fell into an intimidation tactic that often works to restrain the press but was clearly inappropriate in the present circumstances. (See the infamous Carole Coleman interview for a perfect example of how he employs it.) I even commented that I could only imagine what they would have said about the "delusional" Al Gore if he'd done such a bizarre thing in one of the debates.

I see, however, that some think that this is actually an indication that Bush uses an earpiece, which would explain why he oddly appeared to be speaking to someone who wasn't present during the debate.

I can't remember where I saw it, but there have been pictures of Bush published on the internet that show a strange outline in the back of his jacket when he's standing at the podium. And if I'm not mistaken, one of the debate rules was that they could not shoot either candidate from the back.

The right-wing blogosphere has a very good defense for this charge, however. If Bush was using an earpiece you have to assume that the person who was feeding him his lines at this debate was very drunk or very dumb because his answers were just awful.

On the other hand, that would definitely explain why, in front of 61 million people, he finally had to say something even though it made him look like he was speaking to an imaginary friend. He was desperate for Karen to shut the hell up.

Update:

Here's a picture from the actual debate posted on Raw Story. This truly is strange.



Thanks to Hepzipah for the tip