No wonder James Baker insisted on having no rear camera shots! It's just too funny that it was Fox News that took them.

I'll start the list of possible benign explanations for the box:

1) It was the 'little black box' that keeps the president in touch with developments in the world.
2) It was his medication- it feeds directly into his blood stream via his spine.
3) He has a new toy.
4) His wife had gone out for the evening and he wanted to stay in touch with her.
5) He had mislaid his $8000 suit and borrowed one from his janitor.
6) He has a bad back and moving around is painful for him so he put on the ungodly thing to immobilize himself.
7) It was body armor after all, but the only part of his body that was protected was the spine and the part that was protected by a cord running up from there to his right shoulder. (The cord or wire also ran down under his tie and around his middle to the left, so probably about 1/25th of his body had some protection.)
8) He has a bad back so he stuck a heat pack into his suit to soothe the pain.
9) His doector said that Bush's posture has been too straight so he advised him to wear the thing to bend him over a bit.
10) I've run out of 'splanations.
10b) Oh, I just realized another one: He fell flat on his back in his bathroom and cut himself in the middle of his back. It bled profusely so they had to put a thick pad of gauze on it to keep it from soiling his janitor's suit.