The Kucinich Silence

"Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me.” Jesus Christ shortly before his death.

In a newly released book, “Sage-Ing While Age-Ing.” Hollywood actress and author Shirley MacLaine makes a short reference to a UFO close encounter by 2008 presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

In her book MacLaine wrote that Kucinich “had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn’t comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.”

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.

Kucinich was further seen as a friend of the UFO community because of a close relationship to Daniel Sheehan, who worked with Kucinich on his 2004 run for President.

Sheehan is a prominent civil rights attorney who has played a major role in the defense of the New York Times related to the leaked Pentagon Papers, the Karen Silkwood case which basically shut down new nuclear plant construction in the United States, the defense of Harvard professor and UFO researcher John Mack, and other prominent cases.

The UFO community is mostly aware of Daniel Sheehan because of his publicized role as a consultant to two UFO/ET studies that were done for President Jimmy Carter. It was during this Carter administration period where Sheehan made public the fact that he was granted access to the classified USAF Blue Book UFO files. While viewing those files, Sheehan revealed that he was able to view pictures of a crashed flying saucer which appeared to have been recovered by the United States Air Force. He further stated that he had attempted to obtain the secret UFO files from the Vatican Library at the request of President Carter.

With Sheehan advising Kucinich, it appeared likely that UFOs would be one issue Kucinich would be championing as part of the platform of a progressive campaigner working to promote leading edge ideas.

With all this background Kucinich should be all over the ET issue. Such, however, strangely is not the case.

When questioned by the Washington Post regarding a story about the UFO Disclosure Conference held outside of Washington in September 2007, the Kucinich campaign spokesman did not even return the reporter’s call. Then, following the MacLaine book comment, outing Kucinich as being involved in a dramatic UFO experience, the Kucinich campaign was again silent. Days later, the campaign put out the word that it would not comment on the MacLaine claim. This action shows that the claim was probably true, and that like many politicians of the past Kucinich is determined to run and hide hoping the story will blow over.

Such actions are quite unlike the former Dennis Kucinich. His campaign was seen as being the farthest left from the status quo of politics. He appeared to have a campaign built on progressive issues rather than polling data. Like many in the past who have done a similar campaign, Kucinich seemed to be in the race just for the platform where new progressive ideas could get exposure that would not be possible outside of a nationwide Presidential campaign.

According to the FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll for Oct. 23-24, 2007 Kucinich has dropped to 1% in the democratic race down from 2% two weeks before. He is barely a blimp on the democratic radar screen with no chance to win the democratic nomination let alone the White House. So why would he not raise the UFO issue in light of his opposition to space weapons, and his UFO experience where he heard “direction in his mind?” Surely the direction he was given by the UFO was not to run and hide.

So, why the deafening silence from Kucinich and his campaign?

Well, firstly, a quick review of Kucinich’s website shows that he might not be as progressive as first thought. His website identifies his campaign issues as the end of the Iraq war, a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system (in every other G-8 country), survival of middle class individual liberty and privacy (no longer a fringe issue because of the implementation of the U.S. Patriot Act),  restoration of fairness in the electoral system (a popular conspiratorial notion that George W. Bush stole the 2000 election),  sustainable future (green issues), fighting worldwide poverty,  end American participation in NAFTA and WTO ( a now mainstream notion that many of the problems in the United States are caused by unfair competition from the rest of the world).

UFOs, science, and outer space find no place in the Kucinich platform. Perhaps for this reason among others, Daniel Sheehan stated publicly at  the September 2007 Disclosure Conference that he was backing the presidential candidacy of John Edwards.

Like the campaign platforms of the other candidates the Kucinich platform is one that attempts to mirror the voter’s wants and desires rather than important issues facing America in the 21^st century. Kucinich may have decided this time around to centre his campaign on the polls.

He may have realized that politicians have become the new deities of our society. As church attendance has diminished, people have turned to campaigning politicians to answer their prayers. Like Gods politicians campaign as if they were powerful beings that can provide for everyone’s wants and needs. The voters’ job is to evaluate who is offering the best deal and to future determine if they can deliver what they have promised.

A careful look shows that the Kucinich platform is one drafted to appeal to a large block of the American voters. Therefore, as long as he remains in the race for the White House Kucinich is forced to play like he has the power to deliver. Admitting that he received “direction” from a UFO would greatly diminish his apparent power in the eyes of the American electorate. Admitting an alien encounter would also diminish his chances to be chosen a key administrative role should the democrats win, because whoever wins will also want to appear to be heading up the strong White House team needed to produce the promised results.

If there were millions praying to the political Gods for UFO disclosure, rather than thousands, then Kucinich and every other politician would promise action. They would be fighting each other to be leading the parade. The race for the White House is all about votes. Those who have gotten action on their issue (be it African-American equality, gay rights, environmental concerns, women’s right to vote, the right to carry weapons) have been able to mobilize the voters. Sadly politics is that simple.

Secondly, and more importantly, the Kucinich silence can be explained by a close study of what happens behind the scenes in presidential politics. It shows that proper political impression management is the name of the game. As Jeremy D. Meyer described it in an article for the Presidential Studies Quarterly  - it is a “discipline in pursuit of illusion.”

In the world of the White House politics perception matters more than reality, style more than substance.  There are literally thousands of examples that could be used to illustrate this obsession with image. Consider the following few examples:

1.   In September of 1993 the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat came to Washington to sign a peace treaty in front of 3,000 people seated on the White House Lawn, and TV cameras that would broadcast every moment to the world. Rather than the White House worrying about the issues involved, a lot of time was spent worrying about how things would appear on camera. It was Clinton’s job, for example, to make sure Rabin and Arafat shook hands in front of the cameras. National Security Advisor Anthony Lake taught President Clinton a move that Clinton would use on Yasser Arafat if he should try to kiss the president as was custom in the Middle East. Clinton “would reach his left hand above Arafat’s elbow, hook his thumb around the bicep, feel for an artery, and squeeze.” Then President Clinton practiced smiling without showing any teeth, as the White House wanted to present “enthusiasm but not exuberance.”

2.   In 2003 President Bush went to Indianapolis to send the message that tax cuts he had just proposed would help everyone and not just the rich. In order to get that point across to the TV cameras all the men standing behind him during his tax cut speech were instructed to take off their ties. They would then appear like the average Americans the President was appealing to - rather that the wealthy powerful VIPs that they actually were.

3.   George W. Bush declared victory over Iraq in 2003. He did it from the deck of an aircraft carrier out at sea, with the setting sun illuminating a patriotic banner reading "Mission Accomplished."

4.   It a speech at Mount Rushmore in 2002 Bush appealed for Congress to set up the office of Homeland Security. The presidential platform is set up so that all the still images happen to frame President Bush’s head as part of the series of presidents on the mountain behind him.

5.   President Clinton, who usually liked to vacation in the wealthy democratic playground of Martha’s Vineyard spent his 1995 holiday in Wyoming hiking, fishing, and camping out in a tent at the advice of his pollster Dick Morris. Clinton was further advised to publicize the high-tech equipment he was using. Why? Well it had been determined that the swing voters Clinton would need in the 1996 election liked “baseball, hiking, camping, and technology.” Once he won the 1996 election, Clinton returned to his normal golf vacations in Martha’s Vineyard in 1997 and 1998.

Yes, high level politics is that shallow. It involves a lot of spin and that is Kucinich’s problem. He is forced to play the game where every statement and movement on the campaign trail matter in the world of 30 second news stories. One mistake such as a Howard Dean scream can take you overnight from democratic front runner for the White House back to public citizen.

In such a world of crafted illusion, admitting that you had a tete a tete with a flying saucer is political suicide. Journalist Billy Cox once used the word radioactive which might be a better image. If you don’t believe this just ask Hillary Clinton about the reaction she received when Bob Woodward revealed that she was having conversations with dead historical figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt. If that isn’t enough, then ask Nancy Reagan about the published reports that she and Ronald Reagan were running the country based on astrological charts.

You could admit, as Bill Richardson did recently in his presidential campaign that you don’t believe the government tells the truth all the time and that if elected you will look into the records of the 1947 Roswell crash. Clinton proved that line would work when he challenged the Air Force about Roswell in a November 1995 Belfast, Northern Ireland speech. Attacking government institutions is safe. Personal experience, however, is a different kettle of fish. You can talk about the aliens, and who might be covering things up, but you cannot be seen to be talking with the aliens.

In a presidential campaign where image is everything, it appears Kucinich’s days may be numbered. He has avoided the personal UFO question, but only for now. It is like trying to evade the question “what kind of sex did you have in the White House with Monica Lewinski?” is asked. The question will come, and there will be no good answer. It will not be a pretty sight.

The only thing that might save Kucinich is the public outing of another democratic campaigner such as Hillary Clinton who I was told may have had a personal experience with Bill in the late 1970s. Hillary, however, has walked the minefields of political missteps for many decades, so I wouldn’t be betting on this.

Grant Cameron October 29, 2007