Obama and the Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories

Photo from source, CBS News

Conspiracy theories. For the last eight years they have been relegated to mostly "9/11 Truthers" and rehashings of old stories like the JFK assassination. But if you think back a little, they used to be centered around Bill Clinton. For years, countless nutty theories about the Clintons ruled the talk radio airwaves and the then primitive internets. Vince Foster and the supposed legions of dead bodies at the feet of the Clintons was one of the more prominent examples.

That's not to say that all conspiracy theories are held by nuts alone. Parts of them can be very persuasive, maybe even true. Even the official story of 9/11 can be regarded as a conspiracy theory. But then, not everybody buys that one either. Where these theories usually fall apart is when they start lumping nutty stuff on top of the plausible stuff. It spoils the soup. Mention that you don't think World Trade Center Building 7 should have fallen down, and you will be lumped in with those who think there weren't any planes at all.

While George W. Bush has been President (leaving 9/11 aside), there hasn't been much need to invent fanciful theories. He's given us plenty of real stuff to complain about. Sure there have been dire predictions about what he might to do, like declare martial law, or postpone elections, but I think those sorts of things are in a slightly--though related--category.

But as we enter the Barack Obama era, all of those people obsessing about the "Clinton body count" are coming back out of the woodwork. And the story they've cooked up about Obama's birth certificate is a doozy. Apparently, countless people including Obama's mother and hospital officials began laying the groundwork for this conspiracy 47 years ago. I guess on the off-chance that little Barry might one day run for President, and would need to have his non-natural born citizenship covered up. Riiiight.

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Obama & Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorists

They don't have political rallies to bring them together anymore, but it's no secret that a lot of people out there don't much like Barack Obama. The president-elect, according to his more fervent campaign-season detractors, has a raft of unforgivable faults: He's a socialist, a Muslim, an actual love-child of Malcolm X. His birth certificate was missing, his book had been ghost-written by William Ayers, and his wife, "Mrs. Grievance," as a National Review cover dubber her, was perennially on the cusp of getting caught ranting against the white man. The only thing keeping the Illinois senator's infamy from going public is the quiescence of the liberal media. Perhaps you remember. . .

Read more at: CBS News