After reading some of the posts, all I can say is God help us.

It *had* to be someone who knew the question in advance. The “prompt” came very quickly and definitely included the words “I’m not gonna…” I go along with the theory that all of the candidates knew at least some of the questions in advance and Romney was using his own electronic prompter. More efficient than handwritten notes, for sure.

the ‘i’m not…’ part is very suspicious. Why would an audience member say ‘i’m not…’ after saying ‘he raised taxes’. They were pretending to be a candidate?

I think that Romney’s supporters and detractors can agree that he is not a dummy. He certainly doesn’t need to be prompted! Clearly there is some other explanation for the “whisper”.

Shall we review all the tapes of the debates, and count all the times his head moves to the right to listen for some prompting in an earpeice, right before he needs to answer a question?

Jerry Zandstra of redstate.com reports that Romney wore an earpiece during a January 12th speech in Michigan.

The fact that their is a second whisper “support” heard in another question shows that he was indeed cheating so sad that our great country is now under control of a corrupt few!

i find it deplorable that this would be laughed off as a conspiracy theory or unimportant given the clear, documented nature of such an incident. given the complete lack of coverage of this story elsewhere in the media, one can’t help but be suspicious that it is being ignored or disregarded for a reason. if Romney is being fed his answers, potential voters and especially his supporters deserve to know - he has some explaining to do.

Romney heard the whisper because he immediately repeated the words. That’s a given. The mystery is why Russert interrupted so clumsily just afterward as if to cover up a botched incident. His question would have been unaswerable if the candidate didn’t know what Regan did in ‘83, then he explains a second later exactly what Regan did. It makes me think that Russert heard the whisper too and just started blabbing in a hopeless effort to retractively cover up the sound. Could the two have been in cahoots?

There’s a second instance posted on youtube where “support” is whispered and immediately Mitt incorporates that into his answer…

He was fed answers…but come to think about it…he’s cheated every step of the way…you guys want him….have him!

Brian Williams has come out and said he heard it and they polled all their folks and don’t have an explanation. HMMM a politician cheating…..hmmm…

That voice heard whispering is none other than Mitt’s. Now the MSM needs to admit for a FACT that all of the candidates are provided with the questions IN ADVANCE.

Clearly he was provided the questions in advance, and this was his own prepared reminder - played back to him when he wanted to hear it.

Mitt likely had a wireless ear piece and a transmitting device in his hand that he alone could activate - which contained prerecorded brief prompts to get him heading in the right direction with his answers. His own wireless microphone channel (on the podium) picked up the signal that was transmitted from his recorded answer to his ear piece as a digital audio signal and it played through the house speakers and on television.

That whispered voice IS Mitt Romney.

Who was whispering? Whoever it is who controls the Romney simulacrum, of course. He meant to make the robot say, “Reagan raised taxes. I’m not going to raise taxes…” But the idiot didn’t press the button in time, and the mike picked it up.

Or perhaps the program simply malfunctioned. I find this more convincing, anyway, than the theory going around that it was the Angel Moroni.

An open mike picked up one lone voice in the audience… yea right.

Why did Romney edit it out of his Youtube video??

If open mike, then why only one channel of audio????

Someone quick run some computer analysis. If we can get intelligence analysis of bin Ladin tapes then we should be able to find out something about the whisper.

Honestly!! I think anyone who actually thinks that Mitt Romney had someone feeding info to him is a flippin retard!!! I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just saying that it’s a stupid idea and the voice would sound very different if it had been heard out of a mike. That was most clearly a voice from someone who was already there, not through some stupid mike. My bet would either be on McCain or someone whispering that so that Romney could actually undrestand what the question meant, I mean really, would someone actually have to tell an intellagent, capable man like Romney about that. NO!!!! So all in all I think that stuff about a “sectret mike” is a bunch of CRAP!!!!!!!!

If you listen to the tape more carefully and on high volume, you can actually hear a SECOND piece of the whisper right as Romney begins to respond. So the full whisper is, “He raised taxes. I’m not–”, and then Romney says “I’m not going to raise taxes.” This additional evidence seems to preclude any possibility that the whisper came from Brian Williams or another neutral member of the audience or film crew. There are also other moments during the debate when a faint whispering can be heard, although the words are inaudible. Furthermore, the sheer fact that Romney’s language directly mirrored the whisper indicates that it was likely a prompt, and that he must have been listening closely.

It’s pretty obvious that MSNBC was prompting Romney, because they love Mr. Magic Underpants. He’s the darling of the war machine.

You are deleting posts and someone is repeatedly LYING or not listening. Whoever is moderating will delete this post. Everyone can listen and hear the damn voice going on and on. We know what you are up to: McCain’s ads are all over the site.

Aren’t there more important issues that you could be using your time and resources to enlighten the American people on? The outcome of this election is far to important to waste time on dribble like this!

Anonymous - it makes perfect sense that you did not list a name since your comment was so ignorant, intollerant, and non-American.

Back to the subject…why would Romney need someone to wisper “Raised taxes” since he has said from day one that he would not raise taxes? It was clearly for the moderator since he did not ask the question in full. Either way, does it really matter?

It was clearly McCain whispering to himself! He was standing directly to the left of Romney - no question that it was John McCains voice!

It was clearly McCain whispering to himself! He was standing directly to the left of Romney - no question that it was John McCains voice!

it was rudy being as smart as ever giving help to mitt because he knows that he screwed up with FL and his days are numbered. Now we just wait and see who Rudy endorses, a little more help, huh?

This is obviously an open mic from the control room. You can even hear the audio echoing due to the 3 second delay. Whoever said it was reminding Russert and Williams that they had not finished the question, which they eventually did. MSNBC has been having a lot of open-mic issues with people caught laughing in the control room during broadcasts. Pretty shoddy work, fellas.

Where are Oliver Stone, 9/11 Truth squad and the area 51 people when you need to drum up another phony conspiracy?

And elsewhere RS wonders why “the media” trivializes the campaign.

Can I cancel my subscription AGAIN?

The only way we will ever know the truth is if this is actually investigated, and until that happens there will be thousands or “what ifs”. I heard it live on the broadcast and was shocked that they were allowed to have prompters…that was my gut reaction.

Did anyone follow the link about Bush’s bulge? The frickin’ tailor took responsibility for Bush cheating. It would be hilarious if the ensuing results weren’t so tragic.

wow this blog is censored??? WTF Rolling Stone

Republicans running for president had better know enough about politics, government and Ronald Reagan to know how he shored up social security.

It’d be like someone asking Huckabee, “if you were in the Garden of Eden, would you do what Adam and Eve did to the forbidden fruit?” I wouldn’t think a whispered “ate it” would be required.

Do you?

The whisper was obviously Brian Williams whispering to Tim Russert that he either didn’t finish the question right, or how to follow-up, while Tim’s mic was still on. Romney heard the whisper (as I suspect everyone else in the hall did - and on TV), and waited until the two of them were finished talking to each other, and then quickly answered the whisper instead of the question as phrased by Tim originally.

This is also evident because Tim so quickly followed up that Regan had raised taxes to save SS, and Romney again reitterated why that was a bad idea.

No one was feeding the candidates… just the MSM moderators that couldn’t think to themselves what the best way to spring a ‘gotcha’ question on a candidate would be. The gotcha king (Russert) flubbed the gotcha question, and Bryan Williams had to coach Tim on it.

Sources at MSNBC have denied that the comment came from the moderators’ table, claiming that, according to a sound analysis (which Giuliani’s people requested immediately following the debate), the “raised taxes” voice was on the same channel as Romney’s microphone. Attention is now being turned to the Secret Service, which regularly performs EM-wave sweeps of any area that they are protecting (an important function, since they also depend on the ability to communicate with earpieces).

Umm… what happened to my comment, Rolling Stone?

Let’s try this again: If you listen closely, you will hear 2 knocks before the whipser, clearly to get Romney’s attention. There was someone advising Romney from behind the wall. Obviously, they were not meant to turn on his mic until Russert finished the question. THAT is what MSNBC meant by a mic malfunction. You weren’t supposed to hear it, because Mitt’s mic was not supposed to be on.

“Raised taxes” — and we didn’t even see Mitt’s lips move.

Ventriloquism has reached its apogee in the 21st century.

Listen closely: the whisper begins before Russert finishes the question.

Also, it’s only on one channel of audio.

Curious.

It also seems odd that EVERY single poster on each website referencing this incident who wants to dismiss it away uses the same exact phrasing that “someone whispered to Tim Russert that he should clarify the question because it was so vague.”

That, along with the MSNBC posting being pulled and then, the screen capture that everyone has referenced has also been pulled from the server…

I did notice him leaning over just a smidge. It appeared as though he was waiting for something to come in that ear. Once it was said, his head slowly moved to the other side. I happen to know for stage events they tell people with communications devices to turn them off because it interferes with the production mics. (Rolling Stone would know all about this, and maybe investigate it.) I found there were many periods where there was sound interference.

Rolling stone politics. What a joke!!! Carefull Mr. Dickinson, the government is listening to your mind using implanted microchips!!!

The question was obviously meant to corner Romney’s knowledge on Reagan’s methods. I too want explanations from MSNBC and the Romney campaign because there is no way a moderator would finish a sentence with a whisper.

Why is this even a story?

Why is this even a story?

It wouldn’t be a big deal if MSNBC wouldn’t have pulled the blog post. Obviously a lot of people noticed it, so if the explanation is so innocent why not clarify it immediately? I think MSNBC should clarify not only what the sound was and who it came from, but also why they made the decision to pull the blog entry by one of their staffers.

My theory is that the voice was a prompt to Russert to clarify the question but that Romney also heard it and used it in his answer.

The strangest thing about it is that MSNBC had a blog post from Domenico Montanaro, and then promptly pulled it. Why not leave the blog post, explain it, and move on? Also, Romney edited the whisper out of his official YouTube video with the response.

The strangest thing about it is that MSNBC has a blog post from Domenico Montanaro, and then promptly pulled it. Why not leave the blog post, explain it, and move on? Also, Romney edited the whisper out of his official YouTube video with the response.

When/where did MSNBC claim responsibility for the whisper?

I can never support Romney because of his religous beliefs. The Mormons just rewrote the bible to suit their needs. Like most Christian sects, I suppose. “Jesus is coming and there’s limited seating in heaven”. What a crock!

It could have been some type or turret’s syndrome in one of the candidates. Sort of akin to the facial tick Stub Bush showed us yesterday when he said ‘high energy prices’ are saddling the economy…..

Mark is correct - Russert’s question didn’t make sense (he wanted to know if Romney would do “what Reagan did”) without mentioning that what Reagan did was raise taxes.

Somebody whispered to Russert that the point of his question was supposed to be, “Would you raise taxes to fund social security”.

After the clip you provided ends, Russert rephrases his questions with the tax part included.

Asking Romney to explain the whisper would likely get you a blank stare.

It was really loud. If Romney had an earpiece that loud it would have ruptured his eardrum. Plus MSNBC has claimed responsability for the whisper, although they did not name names.

Another alternative explanation is someone whispered to Tim Russert that he should clarify the question because it was so vague. I doubt the majority of the audience members knew what Reagan did so it would have been wise to explain what he had done so the audience understood what the question was asking. Someone possibly whispered to Tim or one of the moderators to mention that he had raised taxes to save social security but since Romney had already mentioned it, they no longer needed to clarify it. I’m sure we’ll find out what it was exactly and Romney will not be involved in it.