PrompterGate

Did Bush get answers during the first Presidential debate from Karl Rove through an earpiece? I'm not sure how credible that earpiece pic is, and considering how often he just beat the same drum, maybe the recording got stuck on 'repeat.' I don't know, while I wouldn't put it past him, I would tend to think the president of the United States has access to more down-low trick gadgets that wouldn't make such an obvious bulge.

This bit from Salon is interesting though:

[Mystery-bulge bloggers argue that the president may have begun using such technology earlier in his term. Because Bush is famously prone to malapropisms and reportedly dyslexic, which could make successful use of a teleprompter problematic, they say the president and his handlers may have turned to a technique often used by television reporters on remote stand-ups. A reporter tapes a story and, while on camera, plays it back into an earpiece, repeating lines just after hearing them, managing to sound spontaneous and error free.

Suggestions that Bush may have using this technique stem from a D-day event in France, when a CNN broadcast appeared to pick up -- and broadcast to surprised viewers -- the sound of another voice seemingly reading Bush his lines, after which Bush repeated them. Danny Schechter, who operates the news site MediaChannel.org, and who has been doing some investigating into the wired-Bush rumors himself, said the Bush campaign has been worried of late about others picking up their radio frequencies -- notably during the Republican Convention on the day of Bush's appearance. "They had a frequency specialist stop me and ask about the frequency of my camera," Schechter said. "The Democrats weren't doing that at their convention." ]

Yet another classic cartoon from Tom Tomorrow

UPDATE: More on getting to the bottom of the bulge.