landen81:
A) The bulge is a joke, people who take it seriously are, too... *cough*

The pens and paper were supplied by the venue, and were already at the podium when they got there. The issue some people had with Kerry was that he carried something in with him, which was supposedly against the rules. I don't think anyone really took that seriously either. It was blather.
There's always a person so needy to express ire that they have to turn everything into a partisan hate-fest...