You're right--he clearly didn't take anything from his pocket. Whatever he was doing, it was with something already on the lectern. With Kerry, I waver back and forth; I positively flip-flop! I think it's a folded sheet of paper on the slower motion clip, but on the real-time clip, it looks like a pen. Still, a right-handed person doesn't take a pen out of his right pocket with his left hand and manipulate it...even if he took it out of a right pocket, he would switch hands to manipulate it.
The thought of ever having to hear the words "President Kerry" nauseates me.
Were all those factual errors he made carefully written on notecards?
It is crystal clear in digital frame by frame slow motion that Kerry took something about the size of index cards, from jacket his pocket, placed it on the lectern and took a few seconds sorting or positioning whatever it was. You couldn't tell exactly what it was he took out of his pocket, or precisely what he was doing with it. It was white colored, could have even been a palm pilot and he could have been turning it on and setting it up. Just couldn't tell.
People are missing the point here. It doesn't matter WHAT it was. If he took ANYTHING.....ANYTHING...out of his pocket, it is a violation of the rules. You could only use what they provided you, even when it came to pens.