I thought it was too loud to be called a “whisper”…

hahahahaha

“WWRRD” is the GOP mantra. I think their Holy trinity is Fear, Ronny and the Free Market.

I posted this on C&Ls immediately when it happened last night (well, not immediately, but after I rewound the incident five or six times and made my wife come down to listen to ensure I wasn’t imagining things). Was it:

A. his ear piece getting picked up

B. a nearby candidate helping him out

C. an NBC (read: GE) helping hand?

D. Joseph Smith

That was bizarre. Was it one of the other candidates beside him who said it? Was it someone near Tim’s microphone? Or was it the ghost of Ronnie?

“Reagan saved Social Security”

Rewriting history again. I guess this means we can look forward to news hacks thirty years from now saying “George W. saved Iraq.”

I heard that too. I assumed it was a rival muttering that he’d “raise taxes,” which is why Romney began by saying he *wouldn’t* raise taxes.

Interesting.

Could the whisper be intended for Tim Russert? Maybe he had forgotten to talk about the taxe raise in his question and someone from the desk reminded him

Pierre @ 9:

Could the whisper be intended for Tim Russert? Maybe he had forgotten to talk about the taxe raise in his question and someone from the desk reminded him

Seems like the more reasonable explanation

Who needs an earpiece (like Warpig) when you can have someone backstage coaching you?

And just what, exactly, is wrong with raising the cap on Social Security above $95,000? We pay income tax on our gross incomes (well, most of us do).

Pierre @ 9:

Could the whisper be intended for Tim Russert? Maybe he had forgotten to talk about the taxe raise in his question and someone from the desk reminded him

seems a little too coincidental that if the whipser was to Russert far away from Mittens that Mittens would, within two seconds, say “would not raise taxes” and goes into his little taking points schpiel about lower taxes, less government and what have you.

A rather loud earpiece, perhaps?

galmud @ 10:

Pierre @ 9:

Could the whisper be intended for Tim Russert? Maybe he had forgotten to talk about the taxe raise in his question and someone from the desk reminded him

Seems like the more reasonable explanation

Really? If you’ve watched Russert over the years, he loves setting traps with questions and letting politicians walk into them..when he posed the question he knew the subtle underpinning was that Ronny raised taxes, but he was waiting for Mittens to answer, walk into the trap, and then give him the GOTCHA - by saying ‘but governor, Ronald Reagan raised taxes to do that…would you?’ Not sure your purported “more reasonable” explanation isn’t really just the easiest, least controversial one.

tlb22 @ 4:

I posted this on C&Ls immediately when it happened last night (well, not immediately, but after I rewound the incident five or six times and made my wife come down to listen to ensure I wasn’t imagining things). Was it:

A. his ear piece getting picked up

B. a nearby candidate helping him out

C. an NBC (read: GE) helping hand?

D. Joseph Smith

I pick Joseph Smith. Heck, maybe Romney is the reincarnation of the natorious swindler himself though, in which case I’ll go with answer B.

Well, now I’ve heard everything.

Hahahaha……it was Romney’s VP pick Dick Cheney!!!!!!!!

This proves it. Mitt Romney actually IS a puppet. To his credit, he wants to be a real boy.

The Whisperer is Jimmeny Cricket.

Excellent but for me nothing will top the ‘wire down the back’ the chimp wore during his so called “debates”. You know you’re an inadequate, moronic, inarticulate dumbass when you don’t have the mental capacity to respond to a question without someone whispering the answers to you.
But then these are reslugs and shrub lowered the bar so low you’d have to dig to find it.

fishboots @ 19:

This proves it. Mitt Romney actually IS a puppet. To his credit, he wants to be a real boy.

The Whisperer is Jimmeny Cricket.

The Rev Gepeto is very displeased you brought that up.

I’m more interested in how much they all support the war. That’s great for appealing to the hardcore 25% of Americans, almost all of whom are Republicans, who still support the war. I’ll be interested to see how the final nominee is able to wiggle out of his support for this failed project when he has to appeal to the entire electorate. Do I smell waffles?

I think that it was a ghost. The Ghost of Republicans Past. It almost sounds like “raise taxes” was added after the fact.

MargeAggedon @ 20:

Excellent but for me nothing will top the ‘wire down the back’ the chimp wore during his so called “debates”. You know you’re an inadequate, moronic, inarticulate dumbass when you don’t have the mental capacity to respond to a question without someone whispering the answers to you.
But then these are reslugs and shrub lowered the bar so low you’d have to dig to find it.

That’s how he must have gotten through college, so having someone slip him the answers was just business as usual. Ah, the life of the super rich!

This is what that uppity Everyman is telling his people:

Massa’ is giving you the oki-doke. He is trying to mislead you. He is a liar.

Listen to the sound of my voice.

I know the way.

Follow me.

Joan Walsh, Salon

I thought I had auditory hallucinations when I heard it during the “debate”.

Sounds like one of the other candidates up there, all of whom have live mics, whispered it to themselves. In debate class, I remember whispering little reminders to myself during my opponent’s statements. I just was never mic’d on a live national feed! It’s a reflexive thing, helping to psychologically earmark that item or point for alter. Although it is kind of eerie! Mary Reilly…

Kathy in St. louis @ 24:

MargeAggedon @ 20:

Excellent but for me nothing will top the ‘wire down the back’ the chimp wore during his so called “debates”. You know you’re an inadequate, moronic, inarticulate dumbass when you don’t have the mental capacity to respond to a question without someone whispering the answers to you.
But then these are reslugs and shrub lowered the bar so low you’d have to dig to find it.

That’s how he must have gotten through college, so having someone slip him the answers was just business as usual. Ah, the life of the super rich!

You’d think he would have spent enough to buy an ‘A’ or two but he is a miserable cheap bastard who’s only generous with other people’s money. So that probably explains the low marks.

I’m so glad others heard that, and you have it on C&L!! Now CNN, put that piece of trivia on your website and tv broadcast and ask the question… Who whispered “raise taxes”? I’ll get the popcorn ready … the explanations should be entertaining.

I heard this, but just assumed it was McCain or Guiliani calling out the answer to prove how “smart” they were at reading the subtext of the question.

If Romney ever becomes president, you’ll see a much slicker form of incompetence than the mean old days of war-monger Bush.

You can almost see Romney’s nose grow as his pie-hole opens to talk.

Russert: Ronald Reagan raised payroll tax and he also raised the retirement age and he saved Social Security…

So St. Ronny saved SS, I thought the Republican mantra was SS is bankrupt, isn’t that the bill of goods Jr. was selling a while back.
GOP now stands for Ghost of (Republicans) Past.

If not a whisper to Russert, maybe a whisper from one audience member (or member of the press) to another?

You’re whispering in my ear
Tell me all the things that I wanna to hear, ’cause that’s true
That’s what I like about you
That’s what I like about you
That’s what I like about you

ghostly!

tlb22 @ 4:

I posted this on C&Ls immediately when it happened last night (well, not immediately, but after I rewound the incident five or six times and made my wife come down to listen to ensure I wasn’t imagining things). Was it:

A. his ear piece getting picked up

B. a nearby candidate helping him out

C. an NBC (read: GE) helping hand?

D. Joseph Smith

D. He’s come back from the grave (!)

The last thing this nation needs. Another lying, phony, manipulative, silver spooned jackass who thinks everyone is so fucking stupid.

tlb22 @ 4:

I posted this on C&Ls immediately when it happened last night (well, not immediately, but after I rewound the incident five or six times and made my wife come down to listen to ensure I wasn’t imagining things). Was it:

A. his ear piece getting picked up

B. a nearby candidate helping him out

C. an NBC (read: GE) helping hand?

D. Joseph Smith

Reagan’s ghost?

betagreg @ 29:

I heard this, but just assumed it was McCain or Guiliani calling out the answer to prove how “smart” they were at reading the subtext of the question.

but the question wasn’t to them, it was explicity posed to Mittens…why would they be thinking aloud in a way to help a rival answer a trap-question? Makes no sense.

tlb22 @ 38:

betagreg @ 29:

I heard this, but just assumed it was McCain or Guiliani calling out the answer to prove how “smart” they were at reading the subtext of the question.

but the question wasn’t to them, it was explicity posed to Mittens…why would they be thinking aloud in a way to help a rival answer a trap-question? Makes no sense.

…and besides, if it was Guiliani, it would’ve came out as: raise 9/11 taxes… 9/11.

I heard it, too. I was on instant message with a friend who was also watching the debate and I asked him what the whisper was as soon as I heard it.

My thought at the time was that it was someone giving a cue to Russert. Now, I’m not so sure. I guess I’ll wait to see if an explanation is forthcoming.

It’s not an earpiece. I mean, come on! It’s clearly audible at the same level and of the same quality as the people speaking in microphones. If it were coming from an earpiece, it wouldn’t need to be a whisper anyway. Why would someone speaking into an earpiece even bother to whisper? It’s going into somebody’s ear canal. It’s not like the volume is gonna be cranked up to 80 DB anyway.

It was probably Karl Rove whispering. The Repubicans have stopped using the old strap on box under the suit coat like the one Bush used during the Kerry/Bush debates and are now just whispering the answers to their favorite candidate.

38: no, it doesn’t make sense, but it seems like this was the friendly republican debate, they were all overly kind to one another — most likely wanting to appear grown up compared to the Democratic in-fighting…

could mittens possibly be more of an airhead?

just asking….

It was Brian Williams reminding Russert to mention the word taxes. Russert immediately elaborated his question to include the “keyword” so that the Republican(s) can narrow his answer in response to President Reagon’s decision to raise taxes.

What were Brian and Tim talking about as they went to commercial? Presumably they thought they were off mic when they said something like, “Did you see this?” “Unbeliveable.” Anyone catch that?

steve davis @ 41:

It’s not an earpiece. I mean, come on! It’s clearly audible at the same level and of the same quality as the people speaking in microphones. If it were coming from an earpiece, it wouldn’t need to be a whisper anyway. Why would someone speaking into an earpiece even bother to whisper? It’s going into somebody’s ear canal. It’s not like the volume is gonna be cranked up to 80 DB anyway.

It’s a young man’s voice. It must be an aide wispering off from the side of the stage in desperation. The sound is coming from the left side where Romney is. My understanding is all the other candidates hate Romney anyways - doubt they would have wanted to save his ass there.

NOBODY … I repeat, NOBODY answered any of the questions last night in the GOP debate Except Ron Paul.

Rudy sidestepped every question by talking about someone else (Hillary)
Romney sidestepped every question by talking about someone else (Hillary again)
McCain Called goulinani a Hero (gasp)

Ron Paul was the only one who got applause. I’m not talking about five shills in the audience, I mean applause from the whole room.

And yet the MSM refuses to believe the polls that THEY themselves asked us to participate in, which shows ……. Paul by a huge margin. Even this morning, on MSNBC they refused to take serious the TEXT-Messaging poll that they themselves set up, which showed Paul ahead again, trying to make it sound like one crazy called in a hundred thousand times or something. It seems they just don’t want the publics opinion on anything, they want to make the news themselves, and screw us … after all, who are WE?

Maybe I’m crazy, but I swear it sounded an awful lot like Donny Osmond.

Realitysucks @ 45:

It was Brian Williams reminding Russert to mention the word taxes. Russert immediately elaborated his question to include the “keyword” so that the Republican(s) can narrow his answer in response to President Reagon’s decision to raise taxes.

Immediately, eh…you of course mean after Mittens’ long winded answer that took up about 45 seconds, right? Immediately…[rolls eyes] the only ‘immediate’ utterance was Mittens’ saying ‘not raise taxes’ IMMEDIATELY after the ghost whispered “raise taxes”. You make a good point on what it COULD have been, but you don’t need to bend the timeline to pretend it all happened instantly to support your opinion.

Russert: Ronald Reagan raised payroll tax and he also raised the retirement age and he saved Social Security…

——————

He saved the government having to borrow even money from outside the government.
He borrowed it from Social Security instead.

GG @ 31:

Russert: Ronald Reagan raised payroll tax and he also raised the retirement age and he saved Social Security…

So St. Ronny saved SS, I thought the Republican mantra was SS is bankrupt, isn’t that the bill of goods Jr. was selling a while back.
GOP now stands for Ghost of (Republicans) Past.

I think the media machine is trying to educate these morons on their way to fixing the election.

btw, what reagan did was not save social security. he raised a straw man, shot it, then claimed victory.

What ronnie actually did was force some people to work past 65 to get the biggest benefit; allow companies to institute mandatory retirement at 60; thus causing the income/time precipice of 5 or more years for retirees, wherein they have to figure out some way to maintain for that period. A draconian byproduct of that was that the way your benefits are calculated, your LAST 5 years of employment are used to determine your retirement payout. If your worked at a lower salary becau