Is all of the talk about the White House and UFOs unique to the 2008 presidential elections? Hardly. Ufologists have been inserting themselves into the American political scene for decades. And one website – www.presidentialufo.com – is devoted to the subject. Although you would think that they would be happy with Dennis Kucinich’s extraterrestrial musings, they are not. In a blog post, Kucinich is upbraided for his failure to embrace his UFO experiences more publicly:
Dennis Kucinich has always been a darling of the UFO community. He has been viewed as a visionary congressman outside the mainstream and thus prepared to take on the important task of leading the US government to disclosure of the truth about the ET presence. Following Shirley MacLaine’s disclosure that Kucinich had experienced a UFO up close, Kucinich was even anointed by some in the UFO community as the ET candidate, implying that he had been chosen by the ETs to be President just like Jimmy Carter who had a similar UFO experience in 1969 prior to becoming President in 1977. Kucinich’s popularity in the UFO community is also supported by things he did which appeared to aid the UFO cause such as when he introduced the Space Preservation Act of 2005 designed to ban the weaponization of space. This move appealed to a huge segment of UFO researchers who believed the ‘star wars’ weapons being proposed for space are actually to be used against extraterrestrials.
This same “UFO community” had great hopes for Dick Cheney, too. I explore the subject in Cheney, a biography of the vice president.Here’s an excerpt:
On September 4, 2004, Cheney flew to Roswell, New Mexico, for a campaign rally. Roswell is known, to the extent it is known at all, as the world headquarters for research on unidentified flying objects and alien life. ‘The street lights are little aliens and they have the alien museum,’ says Senator John McCain, who joined Cheney for the event. ‘It’s all about the alien invasion. It’s incredible.’ Cheney didn’t know it, but his visit to Roswell – the third since he reentered public life – was a big deal to the world’s ufologists. They believe Cheney’s experience at the Pentagon made him one of the few U.S. government officials to have been briefed on the UFO phenomenon. He was in a unique position to share the truth about UFOs and extraterrestrials, if he were so inclined. Two events heightened this intrigue. The first took place at a Bush-Cheney 2000 rally in Springdale, Arkansas, on July 28, 2000, just three days after Cheney was announced as the vice presidential candidate. A UFO enthusiast named Charles Huffer approached then-Governor Bush and sought a commitment. ‘Half the country believes UFOs are real. Would you finally tell us what the hell is going on?’ ‘Sure I will,’ said Bush. Huffer motioned to Cheney. ‘This man knows. He was secretary of defense.’ Minutes later, Bush was standing next to Cheney when Huffer made a second pass. Bush gestured to his runningmate and told Huffer that Cheney had a new assignment. ‘It’ll be the first thing he will do,’ Bush promised facetiously. ‘He’ll get right on it.’ Many in the UFO community missed the candidate’s sarcasm and would come to speak of this exchange as ‘Bush’s Promise.’ Would it be just another broken promise from a politician seeking the votes of ufologists and their supporters? Word spread quickly throughout the UFO community. Cheney is on it. After he took office, they waited eagerly for news, but the vice president seemed preoccupied with the Energy Task Force and other matters. So on April 11, 2001, UFO researcher Grant Cameron followed up in a phone call to Cheney, who was appearing on the Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio. ‘Since the statement made by George Bush last July, there is a vicious rumor circulating in the UFO community that you’ve been read into the UFO program. So my question to you is, in any of your government jobs, have you ever been briefed on the subject of UFOs, and if you have, when was it and what were you told?’ ‘Well,’ said Cheney, ‘If I had been briefed on it, I’m sure it was probably classified and I couldn’t talk about it.’ The host followed up. ‘Is there an investigation going on within this administration, Mr. Vice President, as to UFOs?’ ‘I have not come across the subject since I’ve been back in government, oh, like, since January 20,’ Cheney said. ‘I’ve been in a lot of meetings, but I don’t recall one on UFOs.’ The UFO community seized on Cheney’s allusion to classified information and their hope turned to bitterness. ‘He was like the secretive and calculating Cheney of old,’ Cameron complained.
