Grain of Salt Commentary: Election 2008

I do love me a good election season!

It takes me back to my days as the star Citizenship student of the Lancaster Elementary second grade. At which time, I was not only able to list and pronounce the three branches of government but also list at least half of the key government officials in Huntington, IN (which included a mayor, police chief and head of the farm commission). I re-established my skills as model citizen during the 1992 Election when I worked the polls for the fourth grade mock election where George Bush won by a landslide (due, in large part, to the fact that I lived in the same small town where Dan Quayle grew up).

But I digress. Back to Election 2008!

The melodrama, the squabbling, the fabulously inappropriate coverage of Redneck, USA - Election 2008 has been something I'll not soon forget.

Despite my obvious delight with the trifling details of the respective campaigns, I do support a candidate and I did my due diligence and researched the issues so to be an informed voter.

But we're not here to talk about who I am voting for! [Yes, I know, this begs the question 'why are we here?'] Today, it's all about creativity, specifically, how inventive the voter base can be when it comes to designing swag to promote one candidate over the other.

In the interest of posting length and the inevitable intellectual property lawsuit I will be facing, I've had to limit this commentary to one per candidate so drumroll please...

Republicans: 'McCain is my homeboy'

Aside from the seemingly obvious issue with John McCain's street cred, the pop culture nature of this design makes me giggle at the all-too-noticeable anachronism. How about something a bit more age appropriate, GOP? I honestly don't think that Robocop lends himself to a fashionable t-shirt, maybe the GOP should stick with catchy slogans, Sarah Palin or the elephant icon for all future support paraphernalia.

Democrats: Pope?

First of all, is this a pretty snappy design in and of itself (symmetry is comforting to my left brain). There are really two problems I see with this, both concerning the pontiff on the upper right. First, the Pope doesn't seem to fit here. I suspect that there are other 'opes' that might have worked in lieu of 'pope' (Microsoft Word's Spelling Check Service suggests: lope, cope, mope...). Second, I'm not sure this is the right pope!!! A quick Wiki search helps me understand why you did it but to these Catholic-trained eyes, it appears you created some sort of JP/Benedict hybrid.

Republicans: Sarah git yer gun

Scene: 1 week before Election day 2008. A disenchanted Hillary Clinton supporter shows up to offer her support to the McCain Palin campaign. She is immediately issued a page of Bill Ayres talking points (including the definition of 'palling'), nine copies of 30 Rock Season 1 to burn at her convenience and a t-shirt that looks something like this...

Hillary supporter immediately looks to the Canadian border.

Democrats: Where's Joe Biden?

Poor Joe Biden. An unexhaustive search for Biden paraphanalia resulted in numerous hits for items saying "Biden 2008" or "Biden, the experienced choice", both of which demonstrate the difficulty that Biden faces when campaigning for Obama. Obama supporters didn't forget about Joe, though. They did manage to get good 'ol Joe in on the terrorist fist jab.

Blessings to the US from whatever entity you believe in on Nov. 4. I betcha we're gonna need it.