Was Bush wired with a “little helper” for the debates? Inquiring minds, including these two news reports, want to know:

BLOGS ABUZZ ON U.S. CAMPAIGN
Mark Egan REUTERS
Oct. 9, 2004 The Internet was abuzz with gossip that the President wore a listening device during last week's debate allowing an unseen puppet master to whisper cues and tips in his ear.

The Bush campaign said that rumour -- likening the president to Milli Vanilli, the infamous singing duet unveiled as frauds for lip-syncing -- was totally false.

Online magazine Salon.com on Friday examined the morass of "evidence" offered on myriad blogs and concluded, "As for whether we really do have a Milli Vanilli president, the answer at this point has to be, God only knows."

Driving the latest incendiary blogging is a picture posted on the Internet of Bush during the debate in Florida. Shot from behind, the image shows what appears to be a bulge beneath the president's suit jacket below his shoulder blades.

THE BULGE RETURNS
By Farhad Manjoo SALON
Oct. 13, 2004   Salon looked hard for evidence of the president's mystery bulge this evening, but for much of the debate, on the ABC feed we screened, Bush's back remained out of view. At the end, though, as the president crossed the stage to thank his opponent, we caught this glimpse of something strange pushing out of the commander in chief's tailored coat. Is it part of an in-ear prompting device? Is it a back brace? Body armor?

Paul Myers contributes his ‘Little Photoshops of Horrors’ regularly to The Tyee.