In a way, I feel doubly responsible for what you are about to see. Not only am I the site’s resident (if recovering) Trekker, I also hail from the state that elected Jesse Ventura as governor. William Shatner, AKA Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek, tells Ventura in this interview that only Hillary Clinton can bring peace to the political galaxy by uniting the Yangs and the Comms … er, the Romulans and the Vulcans … no, the Federation and the Klingon Empire …

Dammit, I’m a blogger, not a screenwriter!

The Free Beacon tells Shatner to “stick to Priceline commercials and avoid any further political commentary,” but who can really claim to be surprised by this endorsement, other than perhaps its premature launch? I love Star Trek, but its ethos is the kind of simplistic Utopianism that fueled the 1960s and 1970s. That’s perhaps even more true of The Next Generation than of ST:TOS. We should have expected a Bernie Sanders endorsement, or maybe Howard Dean. Be thankful he stuck with the political equivalent of making Carol Marcus the commander of Star Fleet.

Anyway, it’s rather humorous to hear Shatner referring to his directing career as a life lesson in rational compromise while defending core values. He’s directed two cinematic features — the notorious turkey Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and the even-worse Groom Lake, which currently has an IMDB rating of 2.4 on their 10-point scale. Even more amusing, he’s making that argument to the one man who united Republicans and the DFL in Minnesota — to cut Ventura out of the budgetary loop. He’s a great actor (if not exactly known for his ability to work well with others as he claims Hillary can do) and perhaps an even better raconteur, but this rationale for an early endorsement is as cerebral as Spock’s Brain.

I do have a Trek-related question for Captain Kirk, though, while we ponder the mysterious designation of Hillary Clinton as Madame Bipartisanship. What kind of a score would a cadet get on the Kobayashi Maru test if she refused to enter the Neutral Zone after receiving the distress call, and later blamed the incident on a mean-spirited subspace transmission? I’m, er … asking for a friend.