Inside Politics Weekend: ET phone Obama

OK, so 53 percent of American voters say that intelligent life exists on other planets, according to a recent survey from Rasmussen Reports. But things are partisan among the planets. Liberals, we find, are more inclined to believe this than conservatives, 72 percent to 45 percent, respectively.

In addition, 57 percent of Democrats think there are extraterrestrials out there, compared to 47 percent of Republicans. Men are more likely than women to agree, 61 percent to 46 percent.

Earthling voters are fairly broad-minded, though. Overall, 23 percent say the possibility of intelligent life out there is “not very likely,” only a truculent 12 percent insist the idea is completely unfounded while 12 percent are “not sure,” the survey found.

Is this a political matter? Well, yes. The survey also found that 81 percent of voters rate NASA positively — Republicans more so than Democrats. Three-fourths of voters think the U.S. should have a manned space program, which is good news for NASA and its $19 billion annual budget. The GOP and Dems were almost neck and neck on this one.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted May 18 and 19.

Meanwhile, there was nothing in the findings to indicate whether voters felt that intelligent life exists in North Korea, Iran or Hollywood. But that’s probably coming in some other poll.

Second thoughts

Time marches on, and very quickly, too.

“It’s a good time to be George W. Bush,” says Abe Greenwald of Commentary Magazine.

“President Obama, and the country at large, is finding out that Bush’s most controversial policies were not born of ideological delusion, American arrogance, or missionary zeal.”

Most were “imperfect but sound,” Mr. Greenwald notes.

“But the validation of the last president runs a very distant second to the most compelling aspect of all this: the drama over CIA interrogations and Guantanamo will hopefully serve to set the administration on a more serious national security course. And it would be helpful if the American public finally dropped moral outrage as the preferred mode of political argumentation.”

Mountain do

Boggy Peak is getting an upgrade. It soon will be Mount Obama. The 1,319-foot summit in the Caribbean nation of Antigua will be renamed for Mr. Obama, says Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer in an official announcement this week. There will be a Mount Obama Monument and National Park with hiking trails, along with an Obama Museum with entertainment and educational facilities.

The new Mount Obama will be a “beacon of hope for all people,” says Mr. Spencer.

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