On the Stage

I do believe the big difference is that there are pictures of Kerry taking something out of his pocket at the debate and no picture exists of an earpiece in Bush's ear at the debate.

Go back to the root of Matt's post at counterpunch. The entire basis of the argument is "The theory is that Karl Rove and his minions gave their incoherent and intellectually-challenged candidate a secret little earplug connected to a wireless receiver, so that he could be provided with answers and clever punch lines when he heard a question and came up empty."

The THEORY is that Kerry supporters can't find a way to attack Bush and so resort to making stuff up. See Dan Rather for details. It’s a favorite tactic when facts and history are not on your side of the argument.

On an aside, if Bush is so intellectually challenged and incoherent, why are they so worried? Why is that a stock response to people they don’t like? The same was said of Reagan while he was winning the Cold War and moving the economy out of recession by lowering taxes. If winning wars, lowering taxes and raising peoples’ standards of living is “incoherent and intellectually challenged” then I’d hate to see what kind of world Dave Lindorff wants to live in.

There IS however pictures of some strange blocky bulge and what looks like a wire running up his back.

As far as I can tell there is about as much evidence to each of these implications. Why is there some strange blocky bulge in his back and what looks like a wire? Why did he say "just give me a minute"? Why is Kerry reaching into his pocket?

You know, give both sides a chance. Maybe Matt at CounterPunch used some ill-suited words when describing Bush, but let his point be made, it appears something fishy might have gone on there.

To me, this is as much making it up as Kerry grabbing something from his pocket.

"On an aside, if Bush is so intellectually challenged and incoherent, why are they so worried?"

Well, because people can be worried that he is going to take the office for another four years. The fact that they think he's "intellectually challenged and incoherent" is MORE of a reason to be worried. Because Bush has such a following of people who DON"T think he's "intellectually challenged and incoherent" and think he would make an excellent candidate. I'm just not seeing your point on this one Doug.

My best friend could be running for president, now I don't think he would make a very good president for lots of reasons, but if he had a huge following of people who did love him and believe in him...I would be worried right?

I just think it's funny that the same people say that Bush is dumb, then turn around and say that he's an evil genius bent on ruling the world and has a "secret plan" that they've only just figured out. Which is it? Is he an evil genius or a dunce?

As to the pictures, there weren't any on counterpunch or dailykos sites of Bush with an earpiece in his ear at the debate. As to speeches outside of the debates, let's see the pix. I've searched through DailyKos and didn't find any.

OK, boys. Back to your corners. Now, I watched the debate. Kerry's people have admitted to him having a pen & taking notes. See article Excerp: Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade remained angry at the bloggers' guilt-by-insinuation. "We plead guilty to having a pen."

However, if Bush had an earpiece don't you think he would have given a more structured appearance? Had better arguments? Wouldn't you think he would have "won" that debate if he had someone feeding facts into his ear?

Logic seems to be missing in this campaign. I agree with my sister- I wish we could just fast forward through this month.