Bush is wired. The only question is in how many ways.

A tech expert who designs transceivers for the U.S. military states definitively that the "bulge" seen under Bush's jacket during both debates is, in fact, a wire:

Now a technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military and private industry tells Salon that he believes the bulge is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush's ear canal.



"There's no question about it. It's a pretty obvious one -- larger than most because it probably has descrambling capability," said Alex Darbut, technical and business development vice president for Resistance Technology in Arden Hills, Minn. Darbut examined photographs of the president's back taken from the Fox News video feed at the first presidential debate in Coral Gables, Fla., as well as 2002 photos of the president driving and working in a T-shirt on his Crawford ranch, which were posted on the White House Web site.



Darbut speculates that the device the president wears is provided by the Secret Service, noting, "They're not going to have him driving around the countryside on his ranch without being in instant contact with him."



No one in the White House or Bush campaign, however, has offered such an explanation. In fact, the Bush camp has shed little light on the mysterious protuberance, turning aside questions with dismissive humor or rising tones of exasperation. The president is "a regular guy," White House chief of staff Andy Card told Salon's Tim Grieve before the second debate last week. "Maybe his suit had a little lump in it or something." Campaign spokeswoman Nicolle Devenish took the same line with the New York Times on Saturday: "It was most likely a rumpling of that portion of his suit jacket, or a wrinkle in the fabric." But Devenish, the Times dryly noted, "could not say why the 'rumpling' was rectangular."

Now, if in fact the wire is so that the Secret Service, or other governmental entities, can be in constant touch with him, I don't think anyone would object to that. But then why not just come clean? Because even if that's the device's purpose, Bush's speech cadences make pretty clear that someone is feeding him what to say.



Think about the first two debates. That was someone TELLING him what to say and he did that badly.



That "pre-senile dementia" theory is sounding more plausible every day.