Did Bush have an earpiece -- and blow it anyway?

While Drudge is reporting more of his inimitable smears about John Kerry, this time it's about Kerry using a "cheat sheet" during the debate (as if he had to), NYC Indymedia (as reported by John Reynolds) has an MP3 that sure sounds like Bush is talking to someone other than Jim Lehrer or John Kerry.



Or, if you don't trust that source, you can go right to C-SPAN's audio file of the entire debate. Fast forward to 40 minutes, 30 seconds. Or, you can read the official transcript from the Commission on Presidential Debates. Scroll about halfway down; it's right there.



Here's a transcription:

"As the politics change, his positions change. And that's not how a commander-in-chief acts. I....I...uh...lemme finish...the intelligence I looked at was the same intelligency my opponent looked at."

Blue Lemur has a photograph (not that photograph evidence means anything in the Age of Photoshop) of a bulge in the back of Bush's jacket at the debate that looks like it could be a wire.



So to whom was Bush saying "lemme finish" to, in the middle of a sentence when no one else in the room was interrupting him? Rove? Cheney? God? The voices in his head that in anyone else would have him branded as insane and unfit for office?



People have been making jokes about Bush being Rove's puppet, or Cheney's puppet, for the last three-plus years. This sure makes it look like that's true. At any rate, if true (and it sure sounds like it), it's not only a violation of the agreement regarding rules for the debate, but it just shows you how inept this guy really is -- that he can't even handle himself when someone is talking in his ear like Holly Hunter talking to William Hurt in BROADCAST NEWS. Somebody was feeding him the answers -- and he blew it anyway.