Now guess who saw a UFO?

UFOs are funny things. Not ha-ha funny, but funny weird.

If you think you've seen one and it had nothing to do with beer and a convertible, there's no way to prove it and yet you can't really doubt your very own eyes. If you haven't seen a UFO, it's hard to believe that anyone in their right mind would claim such a thing. And you feel the need to wink at a nearby friend.

So one would imagine that it took a tad bit of courage the other night for Rep. Dennis Kucinich to admit on national TV in front of the other Democrats debating for their party's presidential nomination and more than two million curious Americans he was trying to convince to vote for him that yes, in fact, he had seen an unidentified flying object.

“It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something," the frequent candidate said rather testily, as if he could feel his longshot chances lengthening.

Whether the flying saucer question had any place in what was supposed to be a serious discussion of policies and positions is one question. And so is whether anyone who offers themselves up to our brutally demanding and often humiliating presidential selection process can possibly be in their right mind anyway.

So why is it somehow not surprising now that Jimmy Carter, the former president, says that he too has seen a UFO? Yes, the former governor and peanut farmer told CNN this morning, he saw one many years ago. It was in southwest Georgia. "I and about 25 others saw something in the air," Carter said on "American Morning," "that changed colors and was round and came and left. We couldn't figure out what it was."

Carter did say he didn't think the sighting involved space aliens. Which is comforting since the last thing we need right now is another emotional debate about illegal aliens.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Kevin M]

When I was 19, I saw a UFO. This is not some snide joke. To this day I could take a polygraph test and it would confirm that I saw something up in the sky and I had no clue what it was.

Considering what UFOs are, I am surprised how much media attention they get.

Unidentified = You have no clue what it is.
Flying = It's up there.
Object = It's something you can see.

[Rip]

Jimmy Carter talked about this decades ago, and many times since then.

[Jim C.]

Carter probably saw Venus near the horizon.

There's a transcript of Carter's report here: http://www.debunker.com/texts/carter_ufo.html

Kevin M wrote, "Considering what UFOs are, I am surprised how much media attention they get."

The reasoning of believers goes something like this: "It's unidentified, it doesn't behave the way we think a plane should behave, therefore it could be an alien spacecraft."

That plus reporters looking for a story translates into media coverage.

[Voter69]

I see a lot of Kucinich Bashing over this whole thing. Also, those that didn't like Carter are now saying it all makes sense. Well, it is important to note that the following people also claimed seeing an Unidentified Flying Object:

Former President Ronald Regan
Reinhold Messner, famous mountain climber
John Lennon
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin - 2nd man on the moon.
Astronaut Gordon Cooper
U.S. Senator Richard Russell
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh - Astronomer Who Discovered Pluto
Christopher Columbus
Edmund Halley, discoverer of Halley's Comet
Alexander the Great

So, for the most part, Dennis Kucinich is in good company. Additionally, I think he has provided the best answers to any of the "serious" debate questions asked so far.