Who was he talking to?
During Thursday night's debate, the incumbent interrupted himself at one point, snapping, "Let me finish!" although no one was interrupting him, causing some to suggest that he was wearing an in-ear monitor, and that his brief outburst was addressed to the person or persons he could hear through that hypothetical monitor -- perhaps a staff member coaching him.
Since we recorded C-SPAN's coverage, we were able to go back and watch that odd moment again and again, with and without captions. Unfortunately the captions are just a tad behind the sound and picture, so this is what Mr. Bush looked like when he said, "Let me finish!"
By the time the caption appeared, Bush's expression had changed, but Kerry's hadn't:
As you can see in the first photo, the green light was on: Bush still had the yellow and red lights to go, followed by a backup buzzer, before moderator Jim Lehrer would have interrupted him. There is not a sound from Lehrer, Kerry, or anyone in the audience at that point, despite a Chicago Sun-Times story that included this erroneous sentence: " 'Let me finish,' Bush scolded Kerry at one point." As you can see here, as I could see from watching the debate and later the video, Kerry is silent and not even looking at Bush.
When I began Googling around to find references to this oddity, I discovered that "Let me finish!" is something Bush says a lot, at least around reporters. So it's not such an oddity after all, just a frequent occurrence. But it's still a mystery.
posted by Janet Dagley Dagley @4:16 PM
|
3.10.04  |
|
