Tuesday's edition of The New York Times featured a piece on Hillary Clinton's odd obsession with U.F.O.s, or, as she calls them, "unidentified aerial phenomenon" (the "latest nomenclature," the former secretary of state told Jimmy Kimmel in March).

Mrs. Clinton has vowed that barring any threats to national security, she would open up government files on the subject, a shift from President Obama, who typically dismisses the topic as a joke. Her position has elated U.F.O. enthusiasts, who have declared Mrs. Clinton the first "E.T. candidate." "Hillary has embraced this issue with an absolutely unprecedented level of interest in American politics," said Joseph G. Buchman, who has spent decades calling for government transparency about extraterrestrials. Mrs. Clinton, a cautious candidate who often bemoans being the subject of Republican conspiracy theories, has shown surprising ease plunging into the discussion of the possibility of extraterrestrial beings. She has said in recent interviews that as president she would release information about Area 51, the remote Air Force base in Nevada believed by some to be a secret hub where the government stores classified information about aliens and U.F.O.s.

Clinton's interest in extraterrestrial activity does not seem to be politically motivated. Rather, her fixation seems to be home-brewed: Clinton confidante John Podesta is an avid fan of the television show "The X-Files," and has been pushing for the release of government files about martians for over a decade.

For more on Hillary's love of little green men, as well as a history of American alien sightings from the famous 1947 Roswell crash to today, see Charlotte Allen's piece in the May 9 issue of The Weekly Standard.