And the Conspiracy Starts: Obama Won’t Leave Office in 2016

I remember it well: The year was 2007, or perhaps 2008, and I was listening to some nameless conspiracy talk-show. The host and guest du jour were talking about what seemed like The Impossible — then-President George W. Bush might now relinquish control of the Presidency in January 2009. He might just refuse to do it. He might declare martial law, or some health emergency, or make up some terrorist threat. Would he nuke a US city and claim someone else did it instead? The murmurings continued until, finally, like a breath of fresh air – and Constitutional Crisis averted – President Obama too the Oath of Office and became the new President of the United States.

Whew.

Or not?

On February 11, 2014, World Net Daily’s Kathy Shaidle raised the specter of those rumblings from oh-so-many years ago: “Will Obama Not Leave Office After 2016?”

Ms. Shaidle is apparently echoing the musings of Rush Limbaugh, which makes a little more sense: “For the second time this year, talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh has expressed his fear that President Obama may not step down when his term ends in 2017. To make his point on his national broadcast Tuesday afternoon, Limbaugh cited Obama’s three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate. “They’re delaying [the full implementation of Obamacare] until Obama’s gone. Although what evidence do we have that Obama’s leaving?” Limbaugh added provocatively.”

Sigh. I think we can expect more of this until January 2017, when the next President takes the Oath of Office. With GW Bush, all sides of the political spectrum participated in this conspiracy-mongering. The liberals because they hated Bush, the conservatives because it was an anti-big-government conspiracy they could latch onto. I suspect this time, it will be mostly the conservatives trumpeting this conspiracy.