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40 Minutes 37 Seconds - just who did President Bush think was interupting him? (Nixon had his 18.5 minutes of missing tape, now George has his famous "minutes")

29 October 2004, 06:31

Do you have any ideas on this? I could not find anything on your site about this.

From the message board at bushbulge.com

http://members.sitegadgets.com/bushbulgecontact/board/60.html

Nixon had his 18.5 minutes of famous erased tape. Now George has his famous conversation with no-one at 40 minutes 37 seconds into the first presidential debate.

40 Minutes 37 Seconds - just who is he talking to?
Posted by not_george on October 28, 2004 at 23:21:27:
The important thing to note is not what this bulge might or might not be - That is all conjecture (though quite entertaining...especially if the "cowboy" wears a bullet proof vest - He would loose his bravado if his posse found that out!)

What can be empirically demonstrated though is that at 40 minutes 37 seconds into the first debate the President interupts himself with "I, I, ah ah, l-l-let me finish" (time intervals taken from debate archive feed at http://www.c-span.org/2004vote/debates.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=PresVP_04&Rot_Cat_CD=PresVP_04 )

The rules of the debate where 2 minute answers, 90 second rebutal, 30 second extenstions at the moderators discretion. Senator Kerry began to answer his question at 37 minutes 27 seconds, President Bush began his rebutal at 39 minutes 30 seconds, and then at 40 minutes 37 seconds he utters the line above.

The time left indicator lights infront of the President had only just turned green (still yellow, red, and then a buzzer left to go).

So this is a question with a very clear unambiguous answer at its core.

JUST WHO IS THE PRESIDENT TALKING TO????

 Mr. Lehrer did not interrupt the president.
 The President is looking to his left when he makes his comment (Lehrer is at the center which is to the presidents right).

 Your thoughts????

Link to c-span coverage showing the comment to no one

http://www.c-span.org/2004vote/debates.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=PresVP_04&Rot_Cat_CD=PresVP_04