DEM FLASHED 'WRITE' STUFF AT DEBATE (KERRY PULLED OUT A BLACK PEN?)

New York Post ^ | 10/04/04 | GERSH KUNTZMAN

[kattracks]

October 4, 2004 -- Was John Kerry trying to pull something at the debate last week?

That question was burning up the Internet yesterday after a slo-mo review of the footage showed the Massachusetts senator taking an object out of his right pocket before the first question.

Was it a cheat sheet — as some conservative bloggers claimed — or was it something innocuous?

Either way, it would violate the debate rules agreed to by both campaigns: "No props, notes . . . or other tangible things may be brought into the debate."

Many blogs offered links to the "Pocket-gate" footage. One, INDC Journal, even posted frame-by-frame stills purporting to show Kerry pulling out a notecard and placing it onto the podium.

But the mystery was solved when The Post reviewed a Fox News Channel feed from Thursday's debate: Kerry pulled out . . . a black pen.

[gitmo]

Did he take an earpiece out of his ear?

[lonestar]

Kerry has been cheating all his adult life; proves even he knows he can't win if he plays by the rules.

[Iwo Jima]

Terrific!

That head-to-the-groin shot reminds me of a joke Lewis Grizzard used to tell about UGA (the Univ. of Ga's white English bulldog mascot).

[Iwo Jima]

Kerry should have to spend the rest of the week addressing the allegations that he cheated. He will probably have a dozen different conflicting explanations -- "I didn't pull anything from my pocket, that's a Bush lie. I just took a handkerchief from my pocket. The note cards I took from my pocket were blanks to write on during the debate. All debaters take their note cards with their notes to the debates, but Bush and you people wouldn't know that since you're not expert debaters like I am. Bush did it, too. "

"Oh, and it ws all my staff's fault -- nobody told me that there was a camera in the back."

[Salvation]

Black pen??

Nonsense -- it was white!

[Salvation]

Check the position of the fingers too!

Not a pen! Fingers would be pulled together more/in a different position to grasp a round object.

[Peach]

It did look white and square and I wonder if it was a handkerchief.

[kattracks]

It did look white and square and I wonder if it was a handkerchief.

According to Kerry's campaign it was a black pen.

[shawngf]

Why say it's black when a black pen was never used?

[Peach]

What do you think it was?

[falpro]

Someone on a radio program last night said that Fox is speaking with their lawyers, that there was a potential overhead camera angle. ??? The caller was on before Drudge in New York last night.

So far, still shots seem to show something in his right hand as he's coming around the podium.

[kattracks]

It looks like some sort of note pad/index card from the stills I've seen.

[spacejunkie]

Lewis Grizzard

God rest his soul...he was one of the funniest people ever.

Remember the 'goat' story in church?

[Iwo Jima]

No, but that's all right. It means that I can re-read his books and laugh all over again.

[pyx]

That's a VERY GOOD quality version. Thank you.

But I have to make a note here; A LOT of Freepers are concerned it was a SINGLE SHEET OF PAPER. Well, from what I could see in the video from the link you posted, it was NOT a single sheet of paper.

It was an ENTIRE BUNDLE OF 3x5 CARDS ! It appears to be over one half an inch thick ! As he places the stack on the podium he starts to separate them and organize them as he looks down at them, then he looks up at the audience and then the movie ends.

I wonder if President Bush was so taken aback by this flagrant disregard for agreed upon rules, that that may have distracted W for the first part of this dog and pony show.

[Iwo Jima]

According to Kerry's campaign it was a black pen.

O.K., now we have official position #1. Let's keep count of the conflicting and constantly mutating explanations.

[rolling_stone]

Black pen my eye. Rather continued to say the forged docs were real too.

IMO Kerry put the object on the table unfolded it then grabbed the pen as a distraction as it was already on the table...

The moderator screwed up by not having an overhead camera to see what the paper hero was up to.
If it was a pen or paper he should have been interrupted and the moderator should have explained Kerry broke the rules he agreeed to by bringing a tangible object to the podium. The reason for that rule was to prevent any cheating.

A Rather poor job of reporting, it left out the fact that even a pen was against the rules...

[The_Reader_David]

Okay, folks, let's cut them some slack. If they can reproduce the image of a white rectangle moving through multiple frames by reflecting fixed lights off of a moving black pen, and can do it for video cameras run by outside observers we'll believe them.

There, that challenge should keep them even busier than the attempt to prove the CBS fake documents were typed in the 1970's. Come 2014 they'll still be working on it.

Of course, even bringing your own pen was cheating, too, . . .

[Plutarch]

It was an ENTIRE BUNDLE OF 3x5 CARDS !

What is needed is a quantitative measurement estimate of the object based on the enhanced resolution stills. If the object measures out as 5 inches in length then it is likely a 3 x 5 card.

[ironman]

"The news cams have High Def Feeds"

I do not believe Fox was using High Definition cameras, which shoot in 720P or 1080i.