What about Earpiecegate?

The trouble with conspiracies is they draw you in.

Drudge this morning linked to Infowars this morning with a suspicious image from last night’s “presidential forum,” which is also available and discussed at reddit.com.

The claim:  that the image clearly shows Clinton wearing an earpiece.

The rebuttal:  that’s clearly just a trick of the eyes, and all you really see is the lighting and an oddly-shiny inner ear.  (Snopes has some other angles which look earpiece-less.)

A site called TruePundit claims that an unnamed NYPD source confirmed its use, and that this is exactly the sort of earpiece actors use to avoid missed lines.

Reddit commenters say that her demeanor at the forum supports their claim, because she had odd pauses in her speaking, “as if she was being fed lines.”

So what do you do with this?

On the one hand, this is tinfoil hat territory.  There have always been such theories — consider, for example, claims in 2004 (for instance, here in Salon) that Bush had an earpiece, as “proven” by a suspicious bulge in his jacket.  These are not as crazy as the “9-11 is an inside job” or “Sandy Hook was a false flag operation,” but still —

On the other hand, though:  is there a protocol to ensure that candidates do not so something like this?  An inspection of some kind?  Similarly, are there processes to ensure they don’t get any coaching during breaks, when that’s agreed upon?  I imagine not, or NBC would have vouched for the effectiveness of their inspection at the first claim otherwise.  But why shouldn’t there be?

Is this an insult?  Should candidates be presumed to be honest, because it’s just beyond the pale to imagine that they’d cheat?  Why should that be?  The stakes are exceedingly high — comparatively much higher than that of winning a sports competition, and yet, in sports, there are significant efforts to ensure athletes don’t use performance-enhancing drugs, and, at the same time, those athletes come up with ever-more complex ways of cheating, and even great heroes (e.g., Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and Livestrong founder) were eventually felled.

So why should candidates for the presidency be on the honor system?