Today in Conspiracy Theory

By ticorules on October 22, 2012 • ( 0 )

This being the evening of the last presidential debate, I thought I’d share the latest in conspiracy wack-nuttery. First we had, Obama isn’t American (pretty sure Hawaii is a part of America). Then we had Obama is coming for your guns (Nope, that’s totally crazy. Also, 4 years later and the 2nd Amendment is still there.) My favorite was Obama, by way of the National Hurricane Service, was purposely telling people that Hurricane Isaac was going to hit central Florida. (*scatches head* Really?) Apparently, he knew weeks before that said hurricane would make landfall in Louisiana. Here’s the kicker: he did it just because he wanted to ruin the Republican convention (No, you wingnuts!). But the latest and greatest conspiracy apparently happened during the last Presidential Debate.

SPOILER ALERT: It’s not true.

Setting: Presidential Debate #2. Governor Romney has just stated that the President never called the attack in Libya that resulted in the death of our ambassador a terrorist attack. Candy Crowley, the moderator, corrects the record, saying, “He, did in fact” (call it a terrorist attack). Romney stands there shaken because he just made himself look like an ass in front of a national TV audience of about 65 million people. Obama seizes the moment: “Can you say that a little louder Candy?” The crowd erupts into laughter and cheers.

So this particular conspiracy goes like this: Candy Crowley conspired with Obama to trick Romney into the Libya trap. You’d think he wouldn’t have time for this with him exerting his control over all of the people who work for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 😉

But alas, no.

The entire conspiracy theory misses the actual substantive point of the entire exchange. The fact is, Romney was wrong. He was wrong about a host of other things during the debate but this time he got called on it not only by the President, but also the moderator. And he looked foolish doing it. Maybe conservatives consume so much of their own Bizarro World media and they can no longer distinguish between what they tell themselves on Fox and the darker side of the internet and what actually goes on in objective reality.

But these people can never just be wrong. In their minds, it’s not that Romney was wrong. Candy and the President sat around a smoke-filled room and hatched a plan that would make Romney look stupid by…cleverly using the truth.

Here’s where it all falls apart: For this plan to work they would have to get Romney to agree to it. There’s no other way the trap works unless they get Romney to say that the President NEVER said it was a terrorist attack. Unless they knew in advance that Romney would be wrong, there is no way for them to plot together to capitalize on it.

Mitt Romney, saying something wildly inaccurate in public? Where would they get that idea??

So if the Romney is willing to say that Candy and the President tricked or cajoled or threatened him into agreeing to be a mark so he’d look like an ass while the President would looked presidential, I’ll change my assessment. Until then, it’s just another chapter in the BS Conspiracy of the Month.