Ok, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But I am curious. What the heck was this voice speaking to Mitt Romney in tonight's debate?
Was it an off-camera NBC employee saying something that Mitt did not hear -- something that coincidentally mirrored what Mitt immediately repeated 3 separate times? Was it a Bush-like box-on-the-back type thing? Was it some other candidate on stage whispering to Mitt? Other? Vote below.
In the interest of full disclosure, there was at least one other moment during the debate when unintended audio was broadcast on the air. During a cut to break, Tim Russert was saying that some news about Iraq was unbelievable--evidently to Brian Williams. (Anyone know exactly what Russert said?)
One big difference there: It makes sense that one of the moderators would have a live mic on and forget not to talk before they were fully in break mode. It's less explainable why some random NBC producer would be saying "raise taxes" right before Mitt said it 3 times. If NBC did what Fox sometimes does and had a summary of the question on the bottom of the screen ("Would Romney raise taxes like Reagan?") that would make total sense -- some producer was rapidly interpreting the question to a colleague and accidentally put the audio on air. But it's just harder to imagine that circumstance in this debate.
But, that's why I turn this question over to folks who may have more insight than myself...