Department of Lunatic Fringes

One of my correspondents finds it hard to believe that anyone seriously argued that Bush was going to cancel the 2008 elections.  Well, yes, there were a bunch of lunatics who did--possibly including, according to one eyewitness acount, Congressman John Oliver (Oliver has denied he said this to a group of liberal activists).  Whether or not he said this, (and I'd be surprised if he did, since politicians are usually more keenly alive to their electoral fortunes) the fact that people on his own side were willing to believe he had said it says a lot.   It was also popular among the Ohio voting machine conspiracists.  This is not anything like the mainstream of the Democratic party, any more than the militias and other lunatics are the mainstream of the Republicans.  But yes, there really were people who gave every appearance of sincerely believing that this was a possibility.