I HOPE his pit-crew can CHANGE tires quickly!

I can see it. The race is an endless series of left turns, and, after the election, that's all we're gonna get.

Reading the articles and realizing that campaigns have advertised on race cars before made me want to vomit.

There might not be a better argument that we should abolish the popular election of the President and go back to the Electoral College than this. There is absolutely no dignity involved for any of the parties: not for NASCAR and its fans, who are being pandered shamelessly to, not for Senator Obama, who holds a title accorded to people like Cicero and Daniel Webster, and certainly not for the Presidency.

Why not advertise in movie theaters, too? Can't an Obama ad show during the previews for the Sex and the City movie? How about on vending machines? Maybe we can have a "support Obama" thong too - that'll get out the youth vote.

The fact that some of these things are happening is screaming at us why the Founders didn't want political parties in the first place. "The best lack all conviction / While the worst are full of passionate intensity."

Edit: Electoral College purely, where not one popular vote is cast directly for the President. I realize technically that's how our system works now, but please. This is definitely a popular election in character if not in actual format.

For that matter,ashok, it's starting to make direct election of senators look like a big mistake, too.

@Trish: Thank you for reading that rant, and yes, agreed entirely.

"The fact that some of these things are happening is screaming at us why the Founders didn't want political parties in the first place. "

Didn't the founders have political parties?

Weird, I THOUGHT they've advertised in theaters before...

Looks like Obama is pulling out of the NASCAR deal because he found out (gasp!) the driver is a Republican!

The car, a Toyota — the only foreign automaker racing in NASCAR — would be driven by veteran Ken Schrader.

According to the Federal Election Commission's Web site, Schrader gave $1,000 to the campaign of North Carolina Republican congressman Robin Hayes in June 2004, and a total of $2,500 in 2003 and 2004 to the failed Virginia congressional campaign of Republican Kevin Triplett, a former NASCAR official.

Also according to the FEC, Mrs. Ann Schrader of Concord, N.C. and Ken Schrader Racing donated a total of $2,000 to President Bush's campaign in May 2004 and $900 to the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee in August 2004.