NEW YORK, 10 October 2004 — Was the president wired during the first presidential debate?
The rumor broke last Friday when online magazine Salon questioned what appears to be a large solid object between Bush’s shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer during the Miami debate.
President Bush’s tailor pooh-poohed the Internet conspiracy theory that a long, boxy bulge visible on Bush’s back in the first debate could have been a prompting device.
Georges de Paris, who made the suit Bush wore, said the bulge was nothing more than a pucker along the jacket’s back seam, accentuated when the president crossed his arms and leaned forward on the lectern.
Salon writer David Lindorff, who suggested in an online article that presidential adviser Karl Rove might have been feeding Bush answers through some electronic gizmo with an earpiece buried in his ear canal, was not convinced.
“There’s definitely something under there pushing up through the suit,” Lindorff said.
Lindorff’s story quoted Jacob McKenna, a spyware expert, who said there were small microchip-based earpieces that could be pushed so far into the ear canal that they were almost undetectable.
Bloggers and conspiracy buffs have lined up with Lindorff, insisting that the outline of a wire can be seen on the president’s back in some high-definition monitors.
