I am preemptively calling attention to this in the hopes the McCain campaign does not do it. There is only one way they can save Sarah Palin in this week’s debate.
More after the jump.
They will wire her like the campaign wired George W. Bush in the first debate between him and Kerry in 2004 (see the Salon.com story)--only Palin’s wiring will be easier to conceal. Here are some things to look for during next Thursday’s debate.
1. Is her hair down? Wearing her hair down—which she rarely does for professional events—is the best way to conceal an earpiece.
2. Does she pause too long after a question? A long pause indicates that she’s being feed the answers.
a. When she pauses, does she look down or tilt her head—which people tend to do when they’re listening to an earpiece.
3. Does she seem to be speaking to someone else besides the moderator or Biden. We all famously remember GWB telling Kerry to let him finish when Kerry wasn’t saying anything. Bush was speaking to the person on the other end of earpiece.
Cheating is the only option the McCain camp has left. They tried to postpone the first debate so that they could push the VP debate farther down the calendar—effectively cancelling the VP debate because there would be no time to reschedule it. Gwen Ifel is journalist with integrity and would never give the candidates the questions in advance. Therefore, the only other option is wiring.
Like I said above, I hope that by preemptively stating this, it takes wiring off the table for the McCain camp. That doesn’t mean they won’t try some other way of cheating. But after 2000 and 2004, I’ve vowed never again to sit idly by while the Republicans cheat.