Many of us recall the controversy regarding whether George W. Bush was wired to receive prompts from an outide party during the presidential debates of 2004. Photos appeared to indicate a suspicious bulge under the President's suit that could have been a receiver hidden between his shoulder blades. There's no need to repeat those photos here; they're all over the Internet. Today, much of Palin's new staff has been populated by veterans of Bush's team. That raises the question whether Sarah Palin will be wired for her much anticipated interviews with Charlie Gibson today and tomorrow.
The circumstances surrounding Gibson's interviews indicate the possibility that the Q&A will be a fraud. The times and places of these interviews are being tightly controlled by Palin and her handlers. Although it should be noted that personal monitoring and cueing systems are highly mobile, knowing the time and place well in advance allows Palin's staff to test their equipment in the environment it will be used. That's hard to do when Palin is on the road, and questions might fly at her from points unknown. At campaign stops, outside noises can throw off her prompter and make monitoring the interviewer difficult. Gibson, on the other hand, will be in a quiet room where his questions can be clearly monitored by Palin's handlers, and where Palin can easily hear the cues being given her.
Detecting such a fraud will be difficult. Palin's wardrobe makes detection almost impossible. ABC is not about to scan Palin with a metal detector or pat her down. A receiver can be easily hidden in the small of her back or under a skirt. If she wears her hair down, even a large earpiece could be impossible to detect. Modern transmitters can operate over long distances and can use any of over 100 frequencies, making scanning those frequencies more difficult. (If anyone is in Alaska and would like to try scanning, look for upper VHF and UHF frequencies.) In the end, it is highly doubtful that we will ever know whether we are listening to Sarah Palin's answers or the answers of an unseen prompter.