In this handout photo provided by the White House, a folder for U.S. President Barack Obama (the 44th president) is shown, left for him by Former U.S. President George W. Bush on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office of the White House January 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C.
Beyond all expectations, this simple picture of a simple folder has sparked a flurry of speculation among conspiracy theorists. Publishing their ideas on blogs and obscure pamphlets, they claim the photograph confirms a heretofore unsubstantiated story regarding traditions which govern passage of certain secrets from one American President to the next. The “book of secrets” described in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets was largely perceived as whimsical fantasy, but since the late thirties some have claimed that information regarding the location of such a book was passed from President to President in a folder left on the resolute desk. This seems an vulnerable location for such important information, but some have argued that the historic importance of the desk holds some charm over the minds of loyalists that would prevent them from peeking into the folder, and trouble-makers would be unlikely to ponder the exposed folder long enough to understand the significance of its contents. Perhaps the oddest piece of this puzzle is the near concensus among conspiracy theorists that the practice of the folder on the resolute desk was inexplicably consistent from President to President, despite a near complete absence evidence until this photograph surfaced just days ago.
