Was Mike right + Linoge's true intentions?

While I lean to the fact that Mike was right, I am not entirely sure its for some of the same reasons others are saying.

My main issue is whether Linoge had the power to do what he said, which some people do not think he did if they all stuck together and resisted, and cite the sole incident of Billy resisting Linoge's manipulation.

Now, while Linoge was in jail, he was manipulating people outside on the island. The only person that showed an ability to resist his manipulation was Billy, but all that does is show a limitation to his power and there could have been reasons that Billy was able to resist. However, who knows how long he could have resisted if she had not walked away when she did? I also think the proximity between Billy and Linoge had an effect on how powerful his manipualtion was as well. That and his cane (which is actually a staff - which we see when Linoge is in his true form, the cane appears as the magical staff that it is: much longer and with a much larger head) are my other doubts.

After Billy resisted Linoge, Linoge said something like "back door, bottom step." He had the ability to manipulate his staff from a distance and the staff seemed to clearly be a powerful magical tool in and of itself. After Linoge basically tells the staff where to go, it appears outside the back door to the town hall, at the bottom step in front of Kat, and that is when he is able to manipulate her. There was no sign of the staff when he was trying to manipulate Billy, and if it was there, Linoge would not have had to tell it where to go, because it would have already been there.

Then after killing Billy, Kat said something about the staff and about not touching it. Also, the staff was responsible for mesmerizing the children, manipulating them into touching it and then putting them into an unwakeable dream state. Also, when Linoge had his staff were the times that he was able to create that huge powerful blue force and he seemed to be much more powerful when he had the staff with him.

So, I think it may be possible the only reason Billy was able to resist as long as he did could have been due to the proximity between Linoge and Billy as well as him not using his staff in the process.

That all being said, I think his staff was an extremely powerful tool that, if he had with him, and was with every single person in the town hall (negating any proximity issues), he very well may have been able to put a spell of mass hypnosis on them.

Oh, also, we do know that his remarks about what happened in Roanoke in the 16th century is a true story, and of course, in the world of this book, it seems to hint strongly that he had something to do with their disappearance, which means he may very well have the power.

Now, he could have just been using the fact about what happened in Roanoke to his advantage and taking claim for something he did not do, but, since nobody seemed to have ever heard about the missing settlers in Roanoke (they all sounded like it was the first they had heard of it after their dream), the fact that he made them dream about something that was actually happened made it seem much more likely that he had something to do with it.

Also, I actually think Linoge intended on taking Ralphie the entire time. Do you think he was telling the truth when he said any child would do and that they were all equal in his eyes? Do you really think he would want to take that bratty (and rather unintelligent) Buster kid? Also, don't you think he would want the most intelligent child with the most potential (which Richie probably was, being the child of Mike and Molly, rather than the spawn of some of the other yokels)? Finally, I have a feeling he would have prefered a boy for some reason.

All that being said, I have always thought Mike was right, but I am not so sure. I am not on the fence about it, but I am definitely much closer to the fence than most people on this board and think that Linoge may have been able to do what he said if they refused him.