There’s nothing like driving down a packed freeway and seeing your favorite candidate’s bumper sticker on car after car. In years past most cars would be sporting political bumper stickers months before a national presidential election.
How many political bumper stickers have you seen lately? Is it lack of enthusiasm for the candidates or fear of reprisals and vandalism that have kept the bumper stickers down so far?
A letter to the Editor in the
Newburyport, MA news complains:
A political vandal, after several late-night attempts, has managed to obliterate the "McCain 2008" bumper sticker from my car, which was minding its own business in my driveway. Not a big deal, I suppose, except I paid $50 for the decal as a campaign contributor.
Judicious Asininity is fearful of retaliation.
The only sticker on my car reads 26.2. It's a safe sticker. Nobody is going to key my car because of that.
As late as August 27th
Jay Bookman of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution noted that he hasn’t been seeing as many McCain bumper stickers as those for Obama. He also made an astute observation:
Bumper stickers don’t decide elections. But I think they do accurately reflect the amount of enthusiasm generated by each candidate among his base, and that enthusiasm in turn helps drive voter turnout in November. The person with a bumper sticker on his car is more likely to vote, and more likely to encourage others to vote.
Now that Sarah Palin has stolen the limelight from Obama, the real Bumper sticker wars are about to begin.
Laura Vozzella of The Baltimore Sun wrote:
What do you have to do to get a sticker? . . .It's not your imagination: Barack Obama bumper stickers really are hard to come by in Maryland. . . Even the state's most powerful Dem seems to be having trouble getting his hands on them, . . .
McCain/Palin bumper stickers are making their way to the Republican Headquarters of each state.
The town's
Republican Committee of Eliot, Main has announced:
The Republican National Convention generated a lot of interest. Most people want to know where they can get yard signs and bumper stickers. . .
Yesterday in the
Daily Kos write that they are upgrading their bumper stickers
Okay, so like most of you, I've been waiting to upgrade to an Obama/Biden bumper sticker and yard sign, but up until today, the official versions have not been available, at least where I've been looking. So, cheer up, the wait is over. . . .
Many left-wing blogs are creating negative McCain/Palin bumper stickers and running bumper sticker contests.
Anyone with a computer and printer can produce a bumper sticker. No matter what your taste, you can find or design plenty of Obama and McCain bumper stickers at places such as
CafePress. Somebody there might be having a little fun. If you click to view all Anti-Republican products, you will come up with the anti-Democratic page and visa versa.
There are several online bumper sticker sites where you can design and order a bumper sticker for under $5.00 each.
Actually, my favorite bumper sticker is from a blogger at
Reasonable Kansans.
Political polls change with the hourly winds but as we all know, bumper stickers tend to stay stuck on dirty bumpers for years. When it comes to gauging the relative success of the 2008 campaigns, we should watch and participate in the bumper sticker wars.
