It started when bloggers first noticed a strange triangle-shaped bulge in the back of Bush’s jacket, and now the debate is growing fast: has George W. Bush been wired in the last two debates? Study the photos below:

The first photo is the one that caught everyone’s attention. At first, the Bush campaign claimed that the image had been Photoshopped, but quickly retracted the claim after it was clearly there on the video records. Then they claimed that it was simply a “rumpling of that portion of his suit jacket, or a wrinkle in the fabric.” However, the questions persisted, and even noted newspapers such as the New York Times started asking the question. While Bush’s own tailor claims that it was simply an artifact of Bush’s stance, a Savile Row tailor in Britain said,

“Without a shadow of a doubt, I would say that he had some kind of wire running up his back underneath his clothing. Not even the seams on a cheap suit would look like that. It must have been some kind of transmitter.”

Additionally, during the second debate, it was noted that when Bush fidgeted with his jacket front and tie, what clearly appeared to be a wire hidden underneath became visible (second photo; for those of you who recorded it, it’s 28-1/2 minutes into the debate, near the end of Bush’s reply to the draft question).

Conservatives who are giant fans of Matt Drudge have been complaining about “Internet rumors,” the same dismissal they gave to speculation that Bush may have to enforce a draft in order to keep the military running. The birth of a story on the Internet does not speak to its veracity one way or the other; what matters is whether or not it stands up to scrutiny. So far, few outside of Bush’s core supporters have bought the “rumple in the fabric” story, and the bulge–not to mention the wire–have yet to be explained to satisfaction.

Update: Kudos to Yamantaka over at The Expat for the heads up on IsBushWired.com. Take a look.