2. Paranormal News | Democrats No Strangers to UFOs
When Dennis Kucinich was confronted last night with his alleged history as a flying saucer enthusiast -- wait, that sounds too harsh, so let's just say his history of hearing directions beamed into his brain from a UFO hovering silently over Shirley MacLaine's house (yes, that's what MacLaine says in her new book) -- he ritually sought political cover from Jimmy Carter. Carter famously saw a UFO in 1969 and, when he became president, asked his aides to open up any and all files on possible extraterrestrial visitors.
But Kucinich might have added another name to the discussion: Bill Clinton. His UFO enthusiasm is less well known.
First, let's review the tape from last night.
Tim Russert: The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you sighted a UFO over her home in Washington state, that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a "triangular craft, silent and hovering," that you "felt a connection to your heart and heard directions in your mind." Now, did you see a UFO?
Kucinich: I did. And the rest of the account -- I didn't -- it was an unidentified flying object, OK? It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something. Now, to answer your question, I'm moving my -- it's -- and I'm also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico, and another one in Exeter, New Hampshire, OK? And also, you have to keep in mind that more -- that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than I think approve of George Bush's presidency.
Good zinger at the end to add humor to the sudden eruption of weirdness.
We should parse the references. Roswell is, of course, a tourist destination for flying saucer enthusiasts. You probably know the backstory, but I'll summarize it by saying that, in the summer of 1947, just weeks after an initial report on flying saucers and amid a national uproar over the possibility that we were being buzzed by alien spacecraft, a balloon carrying a sensor (part of a military progam called Project Mogul, according to the Air Force) crashed on someone's ranch near Roswell. Cascading misapprehensions and media hype led some people to conclude that it was one of them dang saucers.
Soon the story evolved into a more elaborate tale involving actual alien bodies (or EBEs, for "extraterrestrial biological entities"), reverse engineering of the spacecraft, a secret war against the alien invaders, and so on. (When a documentary purported to show an autopsy of one of the aliens, many ufologists said it was clearly a hoax, since the alien on the slab had six fingers per hand and everyone knows the real Roswell aliens had only four fingers.)
Exeter, meanwhile, was where several people saw a UFO in September 1965. Kucinich's knowledge of this more obscure UFO event is a sign that he's familiar with the literature (excellent briefing work by the campaign staff!).
What never got much attention was Bill Clinton's UFO interest. After Clinton won the 1992 election, he told Webster Hubbell, his close friend and a newly appointed associate Attorney General, to find out two things when he went to work at the Justice Department: 'One, who killed JFK? And two, Are there UFOs?' "
Hubbell mentioned this in his memoir, "Friends in High Places," and discussed it with me in an interview when I reported my fabulously reviewed but worst-selling book "Captured By Aliens."
Presidents and presidential candidates are like everyone else: They know they live in a universe with billions of galaxies, and that there are funny lights in the sky, and it is perfectly reasonable to wonder if someone from way out yonder is checking us out.
Russert mentioned that 14 percent of Americans have reported seeing a UFO. What he didn't say is that fully 34 percent, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll, "believe in UFOs," whatever that means. Single men are most likely to see a UFO.
But how many get "directions" from the UFO?
Follow-up question for candidate Kucinich from Achenbach: What kind of directions? Is this why you want to cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent? TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR THEM TO INVADE???
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/31/ufos.html
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