There's a meteor headed for Earth. A really big one. A really, REALLY big one. Scientists have been working on several practical plans for this sort of thing for years, devising things like attachable solar sails, nuclear nudge, rock-spitting drills, and so on. None of these involve humans leaving the ground.So, why does the president get on the air and announce that he's sending up a team of humans with drilling equipment, lasers, and nuclear weaponry to blow the thing up?
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Because the people, who have been swallowing anti-intellectual, anti-science garbage from the politicos for years, don't trust the ivory-tower egghead scientists and their unreliable technology to get the job done; instead, they trust a bunch of gung-ho military types with equipment designed by those egghead scientists.
When it comes right down to it, doing it mechanically is "just too impersonal," we have to put actual people in harm's way in order to satisfy our collective national machismo.
Because the current President is George W. Bush. For him, the best plan is determined not on how practical it is, but on how good of a movie it would make.
Meanwhile, we should consider ourselves lucky that the Britons have elected the highly-capable Harold Saxon to Prime Minister, who is more than capable of fending off an asteroid with his attitude alone. But then, I suppose you haven't gotten that far in season 3 yet; just wait till you see him meet the American President. He does what all of us would love to do to Bush.
Because it's funny.
It's a suicide mission, and the team is selected from those who have left the GOP. "Commander" Rumsfield is leading the mission, along with "First officer" Rove.
Various other cabinet members have been tasked to hold the nucular weapon in place to keep it from floating away before it detonates.
Of course, Bush's hand-picked team has nothing at all to do with Congressional subpoenas.
There will be grand speeches under a "Mission Accomplished" banner about the brave heroes. Rumsfields last words spoken in the final second before detonation will be played at the memorial, "Oh look... the meteor brought me flowers! And Chocolate!"
Mass extinction would distract people from the slumping economy and disastrous military adventurism.
Because we know what the robots were planning...
Because he wants to avoid the political fallout of not being seen to be "doing something" before the meteor hits. And after it hits, it's not like it will matter.
The scary thing is, I'd almost prefer Harold Saxon to our current leaders even having seen all of season 3.
Then again, my love of his brand of gleeful evil might have something to do with it.
Politics. The president doesn't think he can get the backing necessary if it's all done by automated mechanisms. The people won't buy it. In order for the votes to go through, it has to be tangible. People in harm's way resonate with the populace, allowing the president to keep his popularity up. Or so he (or his advisor) thinks.
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