The debate in its entirety is available below the fold.

I am by no means a fan of Hillary, but Tim Russert focused so much of his time during the debate aggressively attacking Clinton that I thought he himself had secretly won the Republican nomination. However, Russert saved his most damning attack for Kucinich, who already has the unfair reputation of being a tin-foil hat candidate.

First off, what the hell do UFOs have to do with anything? The Onion put out a video titled: “Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters”. This issue is indeed bullshit. It’s a clear hit job which had nothing to do with American politics, and served the sole purpose of belittling a politician the corporate media does not want elected into office.

Secondly, ridiculing someone for seeing a UFO, then cutting them short when they try to answer the question honestly is outright shameful. Russert asked this question during a 30 second lightning round so he could get his laugh and move on. Dennis may have been able to properly clear up McClain’s colorful interpretation of the event, but was not allowed to elaborate. Russert’s intention to destroy Kucinich’s presidential aspirations was quite clear. There is a profound disdain towards underdogs amongst the network pundits. Is there any doubt that this bit of blood in the water will continue to feed an obsessive media frenzy whenever Kucinich is mentioned?

Third, UFOs are not spaceships. They would be categorized as identified flying objects if they were. Claiming you saw a UFO means by definition that you’re not completely sure what you saw. Therefor, UFOs undoubtedly do exist. They have been reported by pilots, astronauts, and cosmonauts for decades. Dennis tried to explain that distinction, but was talked-over by Russert.

Fourth, I haven’t read Shirley McClain’s book, but for the sake of argument I’ll just assume that Dennis believed the UFO to be a flying saucer. Is this as ridiculous as it sounds? The answer is quite simply, no. The conventional wisdom on the subject simply persists because of ignorance. The most rational minds in the world believe in extraterrestrial life, and I’ll explain why.

The Drake Equation, developed in the 60’s and notably supported by Carl Sagan, mathematically estimated that millions of alien civilizations exist in the universe (around 10,000 in the Milky Way alone) and that thousands of those civilizations are probably capable of contacting Earth. More skeptical scientists put the number much lower, but no serious astronomer completely dismisses the possibility that life has developed elsewhere. Now that extrasolar planetary systems are known to be quite common, the odds of life existing elsewhere are simply too great to deny any longer. In fact, you’d be ridiculed in the scientific community to claim that aliens don’t exist. Scientists who do insist that we are alone are also in the same minority as those who defend creationism or say global warming is a myth.

Peter Sturrock, emeritus professor of physics and applied physics at Stanford, has personally stated that people should overcome the “giggle factor” that normally accompanies a study of UFOs. To a mature and educated crowd, Kucinich’s sighting would not be dismissed as something outside the realm of possibility. What does Tim Russert or any of the other candidates know about astrophysics or astrobiology? Evidently nothing, yet that didn’t stop them from laughing at what they didn’t understand. After all, the debate itself was a hoax, meant for entertainment purposes only.

We laughed at President Carter for also seeing a UFO. He was derided as a kook, not just because of the UFO sighting, but because of his equally insane views on alternative energy, civil rights, foreign relations, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and human rights in general. Corporate conservative arrogance was prevalent in society then and it allowed for the ignorant to taunt the enlightened. A reversal of Carter’s progressive policies took place with Reagan and have continued to this very day. We now know that Carter wasn’t crazy. It was America and his political opposition who were irrational.

None of the Democrats on that stage last night, with the exception of Dennis, are worthy of being called progressives. By the time the Democratic Party realizes that Kucinich was also right, despite his uncommon idiosyncrasies, our country won’t exist anymore. Democrats have regressed into conservatives in their ignorance, arrogance, and greed. Another “loony” UFO watcher is exactly what we need in the White House. Hell, Kucinich could be an alien himself for all I care. Perhaps we should outsource our political positions to extraterrestrials. Intelligent life on Earth seems to be in short supply.

The entire debate can be found below the fold.

It should also be noted that rather than dodge the question, or deny the incident completely, Kucinich told the truth. He could have just as easily turned it around on McClain and said he had no idea what she was talking about. Well, that concludes my rant on that one question. Impeachment was actually the overall message Dennis was trying to get across. The reason being that he will invoke a privilege of the House to force a vote on the issue of impeachment. Contact your members of congress and tell them to vote against the motion to table the resolution, which would kill the bill.

The Democratic Philly Debate
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Part 2 of 12

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Part 12 of 12

h/t CSPANJUNKIEdotORG for being consistently awesome.