Will 'President Hillary Clinton' Open the X-Files?

If "the truth is out there," as they used to say on the old "X-Files" program, Hillary Clinton says she's eager to expose it.

No, she's not talking about her controversial email server, although an FBI investigation is looking into that, too.

She's talking about UFOs (unidentified flying objects) or, as she corrected Jimmy Kimmel when he recently asked her on his late-night-TV show about possible visitors from other planets, "unexplained aerial phenomena" -- or U.A.P.

"That's the latest nomenclature," she said, scoring points, no doubt, with UFO -- or UAP -- enthusiasts.

Barring any threats to national security, the former secretary of state said, she would open up government files on little green visitors or whoever else may have paid us a visit from other planets.

It would be easier, I suppose, than opening up the texts to her high-priced speeches to Goldman Sachs, as requested by her Democratic rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

She also has been more excited about UFOs -- or "UAPs" -- than President Obama, who tends to treat the subject as a rich source of amusement.

So did White House press secretary Josh Earnest in a press briefing last week (May 11). Citing a New York Times story about Clinton's vow to "get to the bottom" of the "UFO and the Area 51 conspiracy," CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller (cq) asked whether the president would "beat her to the punch" by showing some transparency on this issue "which is of concern to a lot of Americans."

Area 51, in case you also just arrived from Mars (Welcome, by the way, and please don't eat us), is a remote super-secret Nevada airbase rumored to be the resting place of captured flying saucers, alien corpses and other wonders depicted in sci-fi movies like "Independence Day" (1996) or "Paul" (2011).

"I have to admit," Earnest said earnestly, "I don't have a tab in my briefing book for Area 51."

"Because it has been taken out?" one reporter asked.

"Maybe it has," said Earnest with a smile. "Part of a grand conspiracy."

Conspiracy theorists will have to wait. Earnest said he was "not aware of any plans the president has to make public any information about" extraterrestrial life forms.

But President Obama has noted cheerfully that access to the so-called UFO files was one of the more attractive perks of the presidency. When Kimmel asked Obama about Bill Clinton's claims to have found nothing of note in the UFO files, Obama responded with a grin, "That's what we're instructed to say."

Polls give a hint as to why this president and those who would like to have his job are reluctant to be skunks at the picnic of UFO conspiracy theorists. A survey commissioned by the National Geographic Channel in 2012, for example, found that more than a third of respondents said they believed aliens have visited earth, and almost half were not sure. Only 17 percent said they did not believe so.

And whether they had made up their minds about the question or not, more than three-fourths (77 percent) thought there were signs that suggest aliens have visited Earth.

That's a large enough group to be worth wooing by presidential candidates -- even if, as Kimmel pointed out to the former first lady, Bill Clinton says he already checked the UFO files and found nothing there.

"Well," she responded defiantly, "I'm gonna do it again."

Again? Maybe she thinks her husband has been keeping secrets from her. I suppose it wouldn't be the first time.

Yet, as much as I favor full government transparency whenever it is possible, I don't think that opening the government's legendary UFO files will make much of a difference in this cynical age.

If secret flying saucers and alien corpses do not really exist at Area 51, I believe it still would be necessary for humanity to invent them. The prospect of being alone in this universe is too gloomy for many of us to bear.

As we have seen with various other conspiracy theories, people will believe what they want to believe, especially when the truth is far enough "out there."

========

(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)