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A cursory glance at this story, and I sooo thought someone had blown the lid of the whole Bush wears a wire thing. But it was not to be :)

It looks like Bush wears an earpiece.

Actually, it also bulges on the sides, not just on the top or bottom. If you look carefully at the image on this site : http://isbushwired.com/, you can actually see the bulge you're talking about just above the rectangular one. But you need to zoom in to see it :)

This is fun! Just like looking at clouds and trying to see shapes!

The agreement set by the debate commission barred shots of the candidates from the rear of the stage. (It also specified only hardwired podium microphones for the first debate, i.e. no lapel mics.) The networks refused to comply with the camera angle rules, broadcasting occasional shots of the candidates from behind. The images here are from the Fox video pool feed.

"Sure, Bush uses an earpiece sometimes," a top Washington editor for Reuters said to me last spring. "State of the Union -- he had an earpiece for that. Everybody knows it," he said, or assumes it. But everybody doesn't know it, I said. Why hadn't Reuters investigated? The editor shrugged and said it wasn't so different from using a teleprompter.

Except that a teleprompter isn't a secret. And Americans have the right to know if the president can't or won't speak in public without covert assistance.

Television hosts and news anchors wear earpieces, called IFBs (for internal foldback, or feedback) which fit in the ear canal and are almost invisibly small, to receive cues from their producers. (Language scientists say that "shadowing," repeating the words someone else is speaking, is not at all difficult, but it is difficult not to move your eyes when listening.) Television journalists would be likely to spot the use of an IFB or at least to suspect it. So, why haven't they raised the question? I suspect it's untouchable in part because asking the question now points up all the years they let go by without asking it.

Check out this article at Salon.com that suggests Bush was wearing an audio receiver at the first debate (a clear violation of the rules if true). The web site Is Bush Wired also discusses it and includes more evidence from previous Bush speaking events. In a couple of cases, the audio of the voice prompter feeding him the answers has been picked up and accidently transmitted as part of the live news broadcast.

Flame me for being off topic if you wish, but we are talking about the presidency and hacking, so I feel this is relevant. Check out this article at Salon.com that suggests Bush was wearing an audio receiver at the first debate (a clear violation of the rules if true). The web site Is Bush Wired also discusses it and includes more evidence from previous Bush speaking events. In a couple of cases, the audio of the voice prompter feeding him the answers has been picked up and accidently transmitted as part of the live news broadcast.

So what are the chances that the democrats will attempt to intercept the broadcast and use it to their advantage during tonights debate? Hacking the Presidency indeed!

"I love this. Am tempted to say, 'I cannot confirm or deny,' and let the story get some legs. 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.'"

I'll let the links speak for themselves: Bush's Mystery Bulge IsBushWired Blog including comments on possible earpiece. Google News search on "Bush bulge".

http://www.isbushwired.com/

If you haven't seen the frames yet, check out this site, which features frame captures from the FOX news feed.

There was a rear camera mounted on the stage (it's described in the MOU between the candidates). The FOX images are available from a number of sources, with slight positional differences -- so I don't think that we're looking at the work of a "lone photoshopper" here.

Maybe they were shut down because Indymedia has been pointing out lately how Bush may have been wired during the debates, and at previous press conferences.

http://isbushwired.com/2004/10/voice-in-bushs-ea r. html

Theory is that Bush has a tiny mic (or dental implant) through which Karl Rove, Cheney or some other intelligent grown-up tells him what to say.

Sound crazy? Then what's that Power Unit with a thick wire doing under his coat during the 1st debate? (Note this was only noticed because the TV network disobeyed the Bush campaign's order not to show candidates from behind.)