A right-wing financial forecaster has some good news and some bad news for you.
The good news, says Porter Stansberry, publisher of Stansberry’s Investment Advisory: America’s shale deposits are going to produce an economic boom that will “usher in a new age of prosperity the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades.” The exploitation of this new resource will transform America’s energy sector more than any event since the discovery of oil in Texas in 1901.
The bad news: President Obama will use the revenue generated by the new industry to implement socialist policies that will transform him into an idol of the American people.
Obama, predicts Stansberry, will use his popularity to seize control of Americans’ 401Ks and implement a national sales tax. With revenues from shale licenses, which will be “like a gift from the Prophet Muhammad to President Obama,” he will “expand the welfare rolls to buy more votes.”
And why would Obama, who just won what he called his “final campaign,” need more votes? Because, he won’t be able to spend all that new money between now and 2017, and because the masses will demand he serve a third term. That’s right. According to Stansberry, Obama is planning to ignore the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“His administration will be extended into a third or even a fourth term, making him one of the most powerful presidents in American history, rivaling FDR” -- whose endless presidency inspired the two-term limit.
You can watch a slideshow and listen to Stansberry talk about the plot on his website at StansberryResearch.com.
Stansberry’s prediction has been circulated widely in the conservative media: it has appeared as a banner ad atop the Drudge Report, and has also been advertised on Townhall.com, NewsMax and Human Events. And it’s worth noting that Rush Limbaugh began raising the specter of a third term all the way back in 2009. However, serious conservatives think it’s a ludicrous prospect. As the Heritage Foundation’s Hans van Spakovsky told Mother Jones:
“I don’t like Obama's policies, but even I don’t believe he would try to get a third term in direct contravention of the 22nd Amendment. Particularly because he couldn’t. There is a constitutional prohibition as well as a practical one: When you submit an application in every state and in Washington, DC, to the state election official to qualify to get on the ballot, they simply won't accept an application from someone who violates the 22nd Amendment.”
But saying Obama will run for a third term allows conservatives to run a third campaign against him, and as a hate object for the right, he’s irreplaceable.
