I can believe that Obama had an earpiece during the debate. Didn’t anyone else notice that everytime Romney began to hit Obama hard during the debate, Obama would look away toward the audience at someone, like he was getting coached?
Obama definitely kept looking around strangely, but I noticed that he seemed attentive to something at his side but his eyes weren’t moving or focused on anything. In other words, he wasn’t trying to read something, but he was definitely paying attention to something to his side.
I suppose listening to an earpiece would do that, since one’s response might be to turn towards the sound.
That said, I don’t see how he could get away with it, and I’m not sure that’s what the photo shows. However, it’s certainly not impossible, and you’re right, there was something odd about the fact that he kept looking in that one direction.
I questioned that on the live debate thread last night. I figured he was either getting messages from someone in the audience, or he was flirting with Bob Shieffer.