Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh on Monday speculated that the Chicago Teachers Union’s strike was a secret plot by the Obama campaign.

“You watch, [Chicago mayor] Rahm Emanuel himself is the guy who said, ‘never let a crisis go to waste,” Limbaugh said. “We know that the unions and Obama and Rahm Emanuel and Democrats are in bed with each other. So this to me, I think is a perfect set up. We are being played.”

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The 26,000-member teacher union went on strike Monday because Chicago insisted on implementing a new evaluation system and planned to cut some health benefits for teachers. The city also refused to install additional air-conditioning units in classrooms, limit class size, and hire more social workers, the union said.

Limbaugh predicted that Obama was going to intervene in the dispute within a few days and bring it to a resolution, bolstering his leadership credentials ahead of the November elections.

“There is no union that is going to go on strike now for the express purpose of harming Barack Obama,” he said. “Quite the contrary, any union who thinks there actions would end up hurting Obama will delay or put off those actions.”

Watch video, courtesy of Media Matters, below: