OK Folks, you may think I am being obsessive, but it turns out while campaigning in Michigan one of Romney’s handlers let it be known Romney does wear an earpiece and is in constant contact with his handlers:

On January 12, Gov. Mitt Romney was in Michigan campaigning for the January 15th Republican presidential primary. One of his event stops was the “Defending the American Dream Summit” sponsored by Americans for Prosperity of Michigan, which I serve as chairperson.

…

During Gov. Romney’s speech, one of his handlers mentioned to one of our staff people that any time Gov. Romney needed to wrap things up, he would be happy to let Gov. Romney know through the ear-piece that he wore.

Being unfamiliar with whether or not presidential candidates wear Jack Bauer-like ear pieces, I simply assumed this was common practice.

All that changed during the most recent debate.

…

Dr. Jerry Zandstra
Chairman, Americans for Prosperity of Michigan

Let me reiterate some facts about the whisper in FL. The only way that whisper would show up on the broadcast audio and in Brian Williams (and Russert’s) ear is if it was going through the MSNBC control room. In fact you can tell Russert heard the whisper because he breaks in to expand the question to include taxes and raising the eligibility age, because he wanted to trap Romney on both aspects of the Reagan ‘fix’ to Social Security. I was wondering when more evidence would come in, because this is something you cannot really hide.

The gentleman sharing his experience above would seem to be a solid Republican. So I can put some trust in his recollection. If you are waiting for the media or candidates to fess up don’t hold your breathe. I would expect all sides to be bound by Non-Disclosure Agreements (legal contracts) with heavy penalties if the charade was exposed. Both the pols and the media have a lot to lose if it is true they are allowing surrogates to prompt the candidates during debates on hidden earpieces or other systems. Recall folks, the first excuse from MSNBC was it was a fault with Romney’s mic – no one else.

Anyway, thought the nay sayers might like to rethink their position.

Some folks did some sound analysis and have detected the on/off clicks from a mic just before and after the whisper – which means a deliberate act of sending just those words and nothing more. That removes the ‘accidental’ pick up excuse. The plot thickens even more.

Reminder Addendum: Just a reminder that MSNBC formally announced first it was a problem with Romney’s mic:

“We had some audio issues and Gov. Romney’s mike wasn’t working momentarily. Simple as that,” MSNBC VP for Communications Jeremy Gaines said in a one-line e-mail response to questions about overheard whisper.

I still say the control room cued live the wrong mic. The whisper was not heard in the room, only on air and in the monitor earpieces of Russert and Williams. No one is saying a mic picked up the ear piece – get over that. What appears to be happening is MSNBC provided the audio control for all the live and backstage mics, including this handler for Mitt. In a mistaken moment the wrong mic was cued live by the control room. If MSNBC and the candidates are jointly covering this up, then that would explain the lack of comment and the ever changing and implausible stories.