Now you see it, now you don’t

The president’s naked wrist, sans watch, gives speculators something to speculate about.
TIRANA, Albania | Whatever happened to the president’s watch?

One moment, President Bush was glad-handing Albanians on Sunday, sporting a watch with a dark strap on his left wrist. Moments later, it was gone.

Did it fall off? Did one of his bodyguards remove it?

Or did one of the crowd artfully slip it off his wrist and pocket it?

Albanian media — and international Web sites — are buzzing over a video showing Bush’s wristwatch apparently disappearing while he shakes hands with a jostling crowd of people in Fushe Kruje, 15 miles north of Tirana.

Bush’s watch was not stolen by someone in the crowd, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday.

“The president put it in his pocket and it returned safely home,” Snow said.

An Albanian bodyguard who accompanied Bush in the town told The Associated Press that he had seen one of his U.S. colleagues close to Bush bend down and pick up the watch from the ground.

The Top Channel private TV station showed how one of Bush’s bodyguards may have spoken with the president and then taken the watch from his hand.