Why is Jon Stewart leaving? Rush Limbaugh has an answer

Rush Limbaugh is fond of unique theories. 

Al Qaeda "gave up Osama bin Laden" to make "Obama look good," he said in 2012.

President Obama wants Americans to get Ebola as payback for slavery, he said in 2014.

The Malaysian airliner that crashed in Ukraine, he theorized last year, was shot down in a conspiracy to help President Obama.

So perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that he has an unusual theory on Jon Stewart's departure, too.

Because "The Daily Show" fans turn to Mr. Limbaugh for the real reason behind Mr. Stewart's decision, of course.

Here it is: Jon Stewart is leaving the the "The Daily Show" because he sees the future of the Democratic Party, and it isn't pretty, and he wants no part of it.

"I almost look at the Stewart resignation the way I look at prominent Democrats resigning as they assess the future and determine they don't want to be part of it," Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday. "Maybe the thinking in certain circles is that the Democrats are not gonna win the White House again.  Maybe the thinking in certain circles is that the damage done by Obama is real..."

In a long, grim monologue, he painted a forbidding picture of the state of the country under Obama that appeared ripped from an apocalyptic film preview voiceover: "Everybody's worried about something. Something doesn't seem right. A lot of somethings don't seem right. Much seems really wrong. To some people it is a failure of the American system."

Things are so bad, he said, it isn't funny – even to the comedy king himself. Literally.

"So if you're in the media, and your job is to make the news and the stuff going on in the country fun, but you don't see anything, you just you see misery and you see unhappiness and you see people that are in various stages of disquiet, you might think, I don't even want to try to crack jokes about this anymore."

And then there's this: Stewart is running out of things to blame on Republicans.

"For 16 years, Jon Stewart has blamed everything gone wrong on the Republicans," Limbaugh said, later adding, "[A]fter 16 years, what is there left for Jon Stewart to blame on the Republicans?"

The conservative radio host and Stewart have a checkered history.

In 2009, Stewart threw a farewell party of sorts for Limbaugh.

In 2012, they clashed over the Sandra Fluke contraceptive controversy, in which Limbaugh called Ms. Fluke a "slut," and Stewart called Limbaugh "a terrible person." Limbaugh later apologized to Ms. Fluke.

In 2014, they clashed over the Boko Haram hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which Limbaugh belittled. Stewart, in turn, started his own expletive-laden hashtag against Limbaugh.

Which is why, like so many others who have reflected on Stewart's departure, Limbaugh shared his own memoriam highlighting Stewart's contributions to the country.

"Stewart's a funny guy, but he lacks an appreciation of federalism and he lacks an understanding of the harm caused by Obama's cult of personality that also sucked him in," he said. "Jon Stewart helped grease the tracks for the most destructive presidency in many of our lifetimes."