Via Kos, one finds this at Salon.com:
Oct. 29, 2004 George W. Bush tried to laugh off the bulge. "I don't know what that is," he said on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, referring to the infamous protrusion beneath his jacket during the presidential debates. "I'm embarrassed to say it's a poorly tailored shirt."
Dr. Robert M. Nelson, however, was not laughing. He knew the president was not telling the truth. And Nelson is neither conspiracy theorist nor midnight blogger. He's a senior research scientist for NASA and for Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an international authority on image analysis. Currently he's engrossed in analyzing digital photos of Saturn's moon Titan, determining its shape, whether it contains craters or canyons.
For the past week, while at home, using his own computers, and off the clock at Caltech and NASA, Nelson has been analyzing images of the president's back during the debates. A professional physicist and photo analyst for more than 30 years, he speaks earnestly and thoughtfully about his subject. "I am willing to stake my scientific reputation to the statement that Bush was wearing something under his jacket during the debate," he says. "This is not about a bad suit. And there's no way the bulge can be described as a wrinkled shirt."
There's more, and I'd read it were I you. (Note that the article, by way of establishing Dr. Nelson's credibility, is careful to point out that he is "not a blogger." That's funny for several conflicting reasons...)
Look, I don't know what to think about this, but one thing's for sure:
Bush and Rove and co. are not above pulling a deception of this kind. I don't know whether Bush did or did not wear a "wire" in this debate, but if you could boil my reasons for voting against him down to two points they might very well be:
Article comments
1 - bhw
I'm not sure what to think, either. There are a couple of shortcomings in the physicist's analysis, or at least in the article's coverage of it. One is that he had, I believe, only one camera angle from which to obtain images of "the bulge." So I wonder what the analysis would have shown in a photo taken from Bush's back left in addition to his back right.
Also, the article doesn't mention what the obvious ridge is that runs down from the rectangular shaped bulge. Is that another wire? I would think they'd have to account for what it was to successfully refute the bad tailoring theory.
2 - Winston Smith
bhw,
Right--we'd have to have info that showed that this is roughly what such "wires" look like...and it wouldn't be that hard to have somebody put one on, put on a suit jacket, and then have pix taken and enhanced.
As for bad tailoring...we can test that hypothesis by asking tailors. Even if we don't know WHAT it is, a tailor might be able to rule out bad tailoring.
3 - bhw
I just like this thread because we get to talk about Bush's bulge.
Heh.
4 - Shark
I have evidence to show that the "BULGE" in Bush's flight suit during the dreaded "Mission Accomplished" photo-shoot was none other than Blogcritics own most garrulous, right-wing commentor.
I will refrain from identifying him specifically, but in a later photo taken shortly after he had emerged from Bush's pants, he is shown wearing a blue dress with a suspicious 'stain' just below the neckline.
*It's all true.
*confirmed by Drudge AND the Washington Times!
5 - Bryan
and the tailor that works on alot of Presidential suits has also come out and said what you see is rather normal in a good suit when the arms are crossed.
6 - bhw
From the Salon article:
How can Nelson be certain there's some kind of mechanical device beneath Bush's jacket? It's all about light and shadows, he says. The angles at which the light in the studio hit Bush's jacket expose contours that fit no one's picture of human anatomy and wrinkled shirts. And Nelson compared the images to anatomy texts. He also experimented with wrinkling shirts in various configurations, wore them under his jacket under his bathroom light, and couldn't produce anything close to the Bush bulge. [emphasis mine]
Does wrinkling up shirts at home pass the scientific method sniff test?
7 - andy marsh
I would think that the president could get a better "device" than one you or I could buy at radio shack...just a thought...
8 - curt
yeah, right andy, bush would never cheat and then lie about it...
...except when he jumped to the front of a waiting list of 500 guys to get in the guards...
...or when he was promoted to 2nd lt. right after basic, skipping officer training school...
...or when he was pictured wearing a ribbon 2 years before his group ever received such ribbon...
...or when he failed to report to dannelly air base in '72 for ACTIVE reserve, as ordered...
9 - deano
Well you are all wrong.
The bulge is real - haven't you ever seen The Puppet Masters? It's aliens damn it!!
Under that carefully tailored suit is some kind of parasitic alien critter controlling the President of the United States. This explains everything...the weird off the cuff remarks, the horrid inability to speak in coherent sentences, the complete lack of common sense, the missing WMD...
They've probably got half the government now....Run you fools! Run for your lives!!!!
10 - Victor Plenty
At last, a plausible theory to explain all the available evidence. Thanks, deano!
11 - jack e jett
is the "mission accomplished" bush photo....buse was using the old straps around the thighs for bulge enhancement.
the bulge on bushes back during the debate? well, it is not really a bulge that interest me.
he does have a great ass, but i think it is padded.
jack e. jett
12 - Tim Hall
I've reminded of a line from the novel "Interface".
"Wubba wubba wubba wubba wubba wubba wubba wubba...".