October 31, 2007

How To Tell We Have Had Too Many Debates

Perhaps the proximity of the Democratic debate to Halloween tempted the moderators at MSNBC. Maybe they have just run out of questions to ask candidates. Either way, the nadir of presidential debates came late in the show, when a mainstream media moderator felt compelled to ask about UFOs:

In the weird last minutes of the debate (the period, by the way, when The Fix made it onto the basketball court in high school) Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) gave us a highlight.

Asked about the statement by actress Shirley MacLaine that Kucinich had seen a UFO at her house, Kucinich said that he had. He quickly sought to clarify -- an "unidentified flying object" he said holding up his hand -- but man oh man.

The big news tonight: DENNIS KUCINICH HAS SEEN A UFO.

No, the big news from the debate is that MSNBC thinks UFOs are so important that it has to ask about them in a presidential debate. Had they simply wanted to confirm Kucinich's supposed sighting of one, the network could have just asked for an interview. Instead, rather than asking a question about policy in a tight time frame, the network of Keith Olbermann decided that flying saucers and little green men took priority over trade policy with Columbia, AIDS assistance in Africa, the proper size of the American Navy, the Law of the Sea Treaty, and so on.

Brian Williams and Tim Russert tried passing the question around the room, only to get shot down by Barack Obama, who preferred to talk about life on Earth. At least someone on the stage understood how ridiculous MSNBC has become. However, with the tragic collapse of the Weekly World News, someone has to cater to the seven people in the nation who took it seriously.

This question clearly indicates we've run out of gas for these debates. We have nothing left to ask, or no one wants to ask anything of substance. "Sighting the UFOs" can now replace the hoary "jumping the shark" in the lexicon of American pop culture, and both apply to MSNBC's political coverage.

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» Richardson and Roswell from RealClearPolitics - Blog Coverage
From First Read: Seriously, Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, called on the government to declassify all Roswell documents. He brought it up himself when Chris Matthews was joking about Kucinich's UFO answer. He said the government hasn't "come c... [Read More]

» Debate Overkill from The American Mind
I give some of the last words on UFOs and Presidential candidates to Ed Morrissey: No, the big news from the debate is that MSNBC thinks UFOs are so important that it has to ask about them in a presidential debate. Had they simply wanted to confirm Kuc... [Read More]

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