From TPM Reader DF:
If Kucinich actually thinks he’s seen a UFO, that is, at some level, “fair game”, but consider this – on the scale of rating as prima facie disqualification for holding high office, how does belief that one has encountered an alien spacecraft above Shirley MacLaine’s house compare to all the stated beliefs of all the GOP candidates (let alone their top advisers – cough, Norman Podhoretz, cough)? And, how much harm might come to us all if that person got into said office and could then act on those beliefs?
And with that consideration in mind, how appropriate is it for TPM to pile on with all the righty smear-merchants, when Kucinich is one of the few candidates out there consistently uttering the truths that TPM “holds dear”?
One particular point I take exception to – David included the part of the Plain Dealer article with this graf:
“I’m in favor of expanding opportunities for people to have a deeper understanding of the universe. . . . I don’t think we could ever discount the possibility of other intelligent life in the universe,” he said.
That’s a totally non-controversial statement. There are 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe, of which ours is but one; ours, alone, holds 100,000,000,000 star systems, probably averaging more than one planet each; many serious astronomers not only don’t “discount” the possibility of other intelligent life, many millions of dollars are being spent searching for radio signals from possible civilizations in other star systems.
So, please, don’t participate in a slime that’s partly based on Kucinich agreeing with significant numbers of very reality-based scientists.
Getting back to the nub of it – by peddling this unconfirmed (if undenied) report, you are doing us all a grave disservice by reinforcing the meme that Kucinich is a far-out wacko (DFH, even?) and helping to spread the notion that he shouldn’t be listened to, when you could, instead, be talking about the substance of his policy ideas and helping to foster the national debate we need regarding where we want to go as a country, and how to get from here to there.
You folks do so much good work – please don’t descend to the level of the sloppy, lazy reporting of the conventional media, the countering of which I thought was one of the main motivations for forming TPM in the first place.
I would draw a distinction between assuming there is other life in the universe and thinking it is sending you messages.
