Flying Pink Unicorns

It is entirely possible that the television series star trek Voyager changed the entire 2008 presidential campaign. I'm serious. Read on.

In 1997, the lovely actress Jeri Ryan was cast to play Seven of Nine, a former Borg Drone, on Voyager. The series' ratings were sagging, and her lovely figure immediately pushed up the show's ratings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeri_Ryan

In 1990, Jeri Ryan married investment banker Jack Ryan. The frequent separations throughout their marriage contributed to their divorce in 1999. The court records were sealed, but came out later.

In 2004, Jack Ryan won the Republican nomination to run for the US Senate. Although he was not the favorite, he had a real shot to win the election. Eventually some of the (barely) sordid details of Jack and Jeri Ryan's marriage came out, and he was forced to drop out of the Senate race.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_%28Senate_candidate%29

The GOP ended up running a badly out of the mainstream showy conservative named Alan Keyes, who lost very very badly. The winner of that election was Barrack Obama. It is entirely conceivable that Ryan would have given him a run for his money, or even won. Imagine how the dynamic of this race would have been had Obama not entered the race...