It was little more than half-a-century ago the armies of Rome, Berlin and Tokyo were defeated by Detroit's "Arsenal of Democracy" equipped by American carmakers. Yet to hear it lately from conservatives and leaders in the Republican Party, American automakers are what's wrong with this country, should be boycotted, and go bankrupt.

Senator John McCain told reporters that we should have never bailed out Chrysler and GM and let them go under.

"No, I don't think we ever should have bailed out Chrysler and General Motors," McCain told The Detroit News. "We should have let them go into bankruptcy, emerge and become viable corporations again."

This, of course, while he was out drumming up support for his 2010 Senate run while serving as the grand marshal of a NASCAR event where the very good ol' boys he was drumming up support from were watching Chrysler and GM products race. And, as The Detroit News points out, we did let them go into bankruptcy. We're still waiting to find out whether they'll emerge as stronger companies.

Confusingly, McCain seems to be channeling John Kerry in being for the bailout before he was against it. Now, of course, he's going so far as to refer to it as "Socialism."

And just this weekend RNC Chairman Michael Steele responded to the news of GM going further in debt by pointing out this statement:

"Today's release of General Motors' financial results is further proof that President Obama's economic experiments are wrong for America."

Of course, GM lost $4.2 billion in the third-quarter last year so this is actually an improvement, of sorts. And GM also announced they'd be repaying loans ahead of schedule.

So who do the Republicans like? At last year's Detroit Auto Show we had a conversation with Senator Bob Corker, the Republican who lead the charge against the bailout, and he talked about the Volkswagens he loves. Not a surprise given VW is joining Nissan in building a huge plant in his state.

In fact, there have been a number of foreign car companies moving better-than-minimum-wage assembly plants into states represented by Republican senators, including BMW in South Carolina, Toyota in Texas, Nissan/VW in Tennessee, and Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai in Alabama. Of course, we can't blame the Chrysler-Fiat "Global Strategic Alliance" alliance on the Republican party.

So when the far right goes to Boycott GM they're doing so for the benefit of companies like Volkswagen and Toyota, who have both surpassed GM as the world's largest automaker in the last year.

Ironically, this is the same Republican party upset about the Chinese purchase of Hummer. As Republican Representative Duncan Hunter told the Wall Street Journal: "Any money that is going to China or to Chinese companies is contributing in some way to China's military buildup."

So supporting American car companies is socialism and supporting every other country's investments in production capacity is capitalism and therefore good for America.

But hey, the Germans, Japanese, Chinese and Italians are our friends so who says we need any domestic car production or car companies? Of course, we're probably just paranoid. Maybe the real reason the Republicans hate GM and Chrysler is just that they really like Ford.

Photo Credit: DiggerHistory

Let's look at the time-line: a year ago, McCain admitted he didn't know how to use a computer. Yesterday, he tweeted his planned purchase of a hybrid. At this rate he'll be teleporting by October. senjohnMcCain @ Twitter]

Remember you can help us satisfy our ego complex by following us on Twitter here, or following the entire team here.

Barack Obama

The Saturn Mural
This particular Saturn sedan has an incredibly detailed mural dictating all sorts of morals and lessons. The paint on the top clearly indicates a support for gay rights. The background image appears to be a giant of some sort walking around a Florida coastline damaged severely by drilling and, just for good measure, the Saturn's got a message about health care costs tacked on. It's quite the commitment of a newish vehicle and an indicator of just how committed Obama supporters are. [Photo Credit: Flickr]

The Be-Stickered Subaru
Rather than invest time and effort into a clever and didactic mural, the owner of this Subaru Forester decided to spare the effort and instead cover the vehicle with as many bumper stickers as could reasonable fit. This vehicle is pro-Obama, though it seems to also be strongly anti-Bush. John McCain may be a maverick, but as this car shows, he doesn't seem to be able to get through to those who've had a problem with the last eight years. [Photo Credit: Flickr]

Volvo-Driving Liberals, Indeed
When people picture the cliché "Volvo-driving liberal" we don't imagine they meant Annie and Samantha Woods of the Obama Mobile. The two sisters covered their Volvo with stickers and sold t-shirts and other items out of the back to collect enough money for travel to the Democratic National Convention and back. Of course, one of them does live in San Francisco...
[Photo Credit: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images]

Is The Governator In The Tank For Obama?
There's nothing more confusing than a Hummer H1, the largest one the up-for-sale brand ever made, done-up in "Yes We Can" blue and supporting the omnipresent Obama logo. Is Arnold Schwarzenegger, a big fan of the vehicles, secretly supporting the Democratic president? Even if this isn't at all related to the California governor, the site of an Obama Hummer shows his crossover appeal. As far as we can tell, the driver wasn't daring enough to attempt the "no blood for oil" bumper sticker. [Photo Credit: Flickr]

McCain-Bush Lincoln Town Car
From what we've observed, Obama-supporting cars tend to be more positive than negative. This bright yellow Lincoln Town Car proves that this isn't always the case. If you look closely, the images on the top of the vehicle are making the "four more years of a Bush term" argument with photos that are half-McCain and half-President Bush. While we can't be 100% sure that this isn't a McCain supporter that sees it the other, this is a net negative for his campaign. [Photo Credit: Flickr]

John McCain

A Suburban, Of Course
Polls seem to indicate McCain is going to need votes in the more moderate suburban precincts in Philadelphia if he wants to win the state of Pennsylvania and have any hope at coming away with a win in the election. This photo was taken in Arizona so it has no bearing on that region, but it is an indicator that he will do well among people who actually drive a Suburban. Though not as dramatic as some of the Obama cars, it's part of a larger trend of McCain supporters not wanting to damage their vehicles in an irreversible way. [Photo Credit: Flickr]

A Tastefully Done Cherokee
This particular Jeep Grand Cherokee is perhaps the most professional-looking job yet. Perhaps the owner makes car wraps? Seriously, we imagine it was a pretty penny to get this custom job done for the rear and sides of the car. Check out the detail on John McCain's head. This owner is putting their money where their mouth is. [Photo Credit: Flickr]

Stop The Radicals!
The driver of this GMC Envoy picks up on the "drill now" theme. McCain's strong support for offshore drilling may explain why most vehicles we saw support him were either trucks or SUVs (an observation supported by polling). This particular driver seems to think that Barack Obama is a radical, but only believes it enough to get a couple of small signs printed.
[Photo Credit: Flickr]

An Oh-So Grand Marquis
Picking up the idea that every politician from Chicago is a crook, the driver of this Mercury seems inclined to make this message with a bit of shoe polish. The vehicle has Florida plates, meaning that this is one more voter firmly in the McCain column. Since the vehicle in question is a Grand Marquis, the official vehicle of old people, we can also assume the driver is elderly and therefore disproportionately more likely to vote (and disproportionately more likely to not understand how voting machines work). [Photo: Flickr]

McCain's Answer To The Hummer Of Hope
If Obama can have a Hummer H1 why can't John McCain have a Toyota Prius? Bucking all preconceived notions of who should drive what, this eco-minded driver still supports the Republican enough to drape their car with a McCain flag. The sign also works as a nice heat shield, reducing the driver's need to use air-conditioning when they step into vehicle. Could this be the swing voter McCain's campaign needs? WIll they let the driver hang out with all the Suburbans and Jeeps? [Photo Credit: Flickr]

Conclusion

Though none of this tells us who will win, we can at least say something definitively about those who want to see a certain candidate win. In this informal survey we've turned up far more Obama voters who feel inclined to turn their vehicles, irreversibly, into campaign materials. There are two theories for why this is the case.

It could be that Obama supporters are more excited about their prospects and more enthusiastic about seeing things go there way, thus they're more likely to attempt something lit this. Or more likely, McCain supporters have nicer cars.

Whatever the reasons behind all this, a lot of people are going to wake up on November 5th and wonder what they're going to do next with their cars.

Full-Size Truck Owners Favor McCain, While Wagon Owners Look to Obama

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ — According to Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com Marketing Research, the car brand and segment owned by voters is related to their preference in presidential candidates. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) rates high among domestic and luxury owners. Among the domestic brands, owners of GMC (61 percent), Chevrolet (60 percent), Buick and Dodge (each at 58 percent), as well as Ford (57 percent) vehicles are the highest in favor of McCain. In the luxury vehicle segment, McCain leads among Lexus, BMW, and Lincoln owners at 52 percent each.

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) leads McCain among owners of import vehicles with the highest ratings for MINI (70 percent), Subaru (61 percent), and Saab (59 percent). Fifty percent of Honda owners plan on voting for Obama, ten points higher than McCain.

In addition, vehicle segments have a direct correlation to car-owners' preferred presidential candidates. McCain receives the highest support from full-size truck (66 percent), full-size SUV (61 percent) and luxury SUV (61 percent) owners. Obama leads McCain among luxury station wagon (59 percent), station wagon and sport wagon (55 percent), hatchback (52 percent) and luxury crossover vehicle (52 percent) owners. Among owners of hybrid vehicles, Obama leads with 48 percent of the preferences, nine points more than McCain.

The connection between car ownership and Presidential candidates can also be seen in both the Democratic and Republican campaigns. Republican rallies often promote the idea of "drill, baby, drill," which may link gas-guzzling truck and SUV owners to McCain. On the other hand, Obama has stressed the importance of putting more money toward wind, solar, and other alternative forms of energy, which may relate to his popularity among hybrid owners.

"McCain's appeal among owners of domestics and large trucks/SUVs is right in line with where we see a majority of those vehicles selling - in the traditionally Republican 'red' states," said Rick Wainschel, senior vice president of marketing and analytics for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. "With import and hybrid owners typically favoring Obama, this also aligns with strong sales of these types of vehicles in predominately Democratic 'blue' states."

Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research also conducted this survey for the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections, and accurately predicted the results. Eight years ago, the survey predicted George W. Bush would take the lead over Al Gore. In 2004, the results revealed President Bush would win over Senator John Kerry.

"Car ownership says a lot about a person, and can even be an indicator who they are likely to vote for," added Wainschel. "If consumers are concerned about the environment, they may choose a more eco-friendly vehicle, like a hybrid, and vote for the candidate with a favorable stance on energy. Consumers' values impact their purchasing decisions and reflect their preferences in political leaders."

The latest study from Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research was conducted September 19 through October 8, 2008, on Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com among 11,142 vehicle owners planning to vote in the upcoming 2008 United States Presidential election.

[Photos: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Image, Bill Pugliano/Getty Images]

First up was the McCain Uphill Slog Penalty. John McCain has done plenty of struggling in his life, and trudging to the top of the very tall mountain that is the United States Presidency is tough enough under any circumstances… but what about when you're dragging the dead weight of an unpopular lame-duck administration, during tough economic times, and most of your own party hates you? What's that like? Well, we figure it probably feels similar to donning a rubber McCain mask and pushing a Ford Taurus SHO with seven burly guys sitting on it the length of the pit road in the muggy petro-enhanced Houston air… so that's what we had this miscreant do after he did Badness on the track. Bet he thinks twice before trading paint with a CRX at the next race!


The jeering crowds liked that so much that we figured we'd McCain-ize the next driver black-flagged in for too much aggro on the track. It's a lot easier when the car is a BMW 2002 and your team only has four members, so we had the Loverman add his weight to the load. Man, that McCain mask gets sweaty fast!


Then there's Barack Obama, who promises change and plenty of it. You know what, though- change can often be painful, hard work, and it can force you to throw away a lot of sweat you've already invested! That's why we figured the Obama Change You Can Believe In Penalty had to be hard mental and physical work that undid a lot of the team's previous efforts. The way it works goes like this: we give the team members spray paint, tagger-grade fat permanent markers, colored tape, etc., and the team needs to completely change their car's theme before we'll let them continue racing. Not only that, we have to believe in the change, so half-assed efforts get sent back to the penalty box for more work.


By far the most impressive Change We Can Believe In victims were the guys on the Svedish Slaabs Saab 900 Turbo team. Their original theme was a sort of IKEA-meatball-style mishmash of Swedish Chef and ABBA iconography, but they managed to change their car to the Exxon Valdez in about six minutes flat.


Got to admit, we were freakin' awed by their accomplishment (which stood in stark contrast to their typical LeMons Saab on-track performance, which generally involves completing less than 20 laps and then nuking the engine). "Dancing Queen" became "Leaky Queen," for starters.


The Swedish Chef doll became Captain Hazelwood, complete with beer cans ziptied to his body. We liked this accomplishment so much that we gave the Slaabs our created-on-the-spot Judges' Choice Award (12-pack of Shiner Bock) after the race.


Other teams didn't quite measure up to the incredibly high bar set by the Svedish Slaabs; the Enginerds went for a "We're Sorry" theme, apparently figuring we'd stop punishing them if they showed remorse.


When they beat the shit out of their formerly-dent-free car with hammers, their new theme became "Sorry Piece Of Crap," and we let them back on the track.


Then we had the über-recidivist Unintended Acceleration Audi team. The kind of Audi you can get for 500 bucks is almost invariably gonna be one evil-handling beast in a LeMons race, and this one was no exception; we hit these guys with every penalty we had (though they successfully pleaded their way out of the metal-shavings-in-the-crankcase one), but every time we turned around they'd be back in the penalty area with sheepish looks on their faces after spinning out and/or hitting something… again.

By that time we'd used up most of the spray paint turning Neons into Civics and Mustangs into Camaros, so these guys were limited to white appliance paint and red duct tape for their Change We Can Believe In penalty. They opted to make the move from "Unintended Acceleration" to "Peace And Love," complete with hearts and peace signs in white and red. Even though they were spending most of their time in the Crime Scene impound yard by this point in the race, they were still driven mad by race fever and threw on the new theme in record time; they managed a very respectable 25th place and a pretty good 1:21.105 best lap time.


We also had a Hillary Clinton mask and a couple of genuine Hillary signs picked up by a friend who was on the floor at the Democratic National Convention, so we figured we'd do a Hillary punishment as well. To symbolize the broken dreams of Clinton supporters, we taped the posters to the car and had the miscreant (in this case, one of the Punisher Racing Caprice drivers) put on the Hillary mask and sit, disrespected and forgotten, at the judges' table for 30 minutes.


Hillary haters- no shortage of them in Texas- got a big kick out of the "Hillary: To Enslave And Torture" logos on the Punisher's new/improved door emblems.

He ends by pointing out that America created the car industry and should be a leader (and not a loss-leader). Of course, Germans created the first auto company, but we created mass production so that any poor schlub can buy it on credit... that's working out pretty well, right? McCain, to his credit, does make a nod towards sugar tariffs and their impact on clean ethanol from Brazil, but doesn't seem to want to assure white, union voters in the "heartland" he's looking out for them.

"Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates. Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”

John McCain, as far as we can tell, doesn't know what a video game is.[Gigaom via Politco, Photo: RVB]

While the overtones of protectionism are strong, the nuts n' bolts of the ad are all about whether McCain's just a no-good dirty flip-flopper. Gettelfinger claims a recent article by Newsweek's Keith Naughton contradicts McCain's statement that he has proudly bought American-made cars all his life. Registration records show among McCain's 13 vehicles are a Honda sedan, a drop-top Volkswagen and Cindy's personal Lexus, while his campaign also states that the Republican presidential nominee is a proud Buick Cadillac owner. We assume McCain meant that he's proudly bought American cars all his life, but not just American cars. After all, that's a lot of years to have never taken a dip in the import pool. McCain's also been questioned by reporters about whether a Toyota Prius his daughter owns was purchased by her or by Daddy McCain. McCain responded by first saying he purchased it, and then later saying he could not remember whether he'd bought the car himself.

Gettelfinger reiterated "Americans are free to buy whatever they choose," presumably clearing his throat while saying "as long as it's made in the USA by union workers and you're not a presidential candidate pandering for votes in the rust belt." Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and his wife currently share a Ford Escape Hybrid, which, along with the Obama's previous Jeep Grand Cherokee, and HEMI-powered Chrysler 300C apparently receive an approving wink and touch of the nose from the UAW. And in Michigan, that's all you normally need. [Detroit News; Photo Credit: PoliticsUSA]

In keeping with his elite Northeastern liberal ways, Joe Biden typically rides AMTRAK back and forth from DC and Delaware, claiming last summer, ““I am the reason Amtrak keeps moving.” When Joe isn’t single-handedly keeping our nation’s rail system in business, he drives a 1967 Corvette, which might indicate that he moonlights as some sort of pimp.

When asked what type of car he drove, John McCain couldn’t remember. Thankfully, a younger, less mentally decayed aid was able to point out that not only did McCain own a Cadillac CTS, but that he even passed his last vision test at the DMV. McCain did remember that his first car was a 1958 Corvette, although why he didn’t start driving well into his 20s we don’t understand.

In keeping with her role as a rugged frontier mother of five and sworn enemy of Communist Russia, Sarah Palin drives a Chevy Suburban. The eight-seat vehicle may not be big enough for her growing family though, which will number nine when her 17-year-old daughter gives birth and gets married. Palin’s suburban is provided by the state of Alaska; in keeping with her hard-partying ex-beauty queen nature, she previously drove a Ford Mustang.

In addition to his gas guzzling V8 Chrysler 300, Obama once owned an equally unfrugal 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We’re unable to confirm if either vehicle was ever used for drug dealing, but we’d like to ask that question, and strongly insinuate an answer anyway.

Of course, both candidates and their running mates aspire to trade up to the ultimate in wasteful government spending: a fleet of armored Cadillac Limos. While we don’t have official MPG figures on these vehicles, we can only assume that their environment-killing credentials are topped by Air Force One and Marine One, respectively. [via the LA Times]

[CarandDriver.com via Wonkette]

Included in the bill, at the behest of Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, is an additional $250 million for advanced battery funding, which seems to be the sexy thing to fund these days. On the opposite side of the presidential horse-race fence, Senator John McCain (R-Everybody's Friend) is backing large tax credits for consumers purchasing economical cars and an X-Prize-like $300-million contest for much-improved batteries. We just want this long national nightmare of endless election "news" to be over. One hundred and one days left. [Freep]

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said "The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup Series, though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama's message of change." We're not sure how carbureted pushrod V8 machines turning left all day for a crowd of flat-earth enthusiasts doesn't speak change, but that's why we just write about cars.

More likely, Team Obama decided its ad dollars would be better spent at venues where the senator had a better chance of attracting voters, such as Ducks Unlimited meets, Hummer enthusiast clubs and of course NRA rallies. Which is a shame, because we were all about Obama and McCain proxies drifting and bumping around Talladega, only to have Nader sneak through the slot and eke out the race win, but still lose in the total points tally. [Seattle Times]

Matt: Come November, what do you think we'll be paying for a gallon of gasoline?
Crazy Old Coot: I'm not sure. Part of it depends on how it looks like we are making advances to alternative energy.
Matt: Can we make advances in that short time?
Crazy Old Coot: I think we can certainly show some progress in development of a battery that'll take us 100 miles or so before we have to plug it in. We need concrete plans with nuclear power. I don't think it'll [gas prices] be dramatically changed [in November], but...I don't think it's going much lower.