Today, President Obama was in Iowa, talking about his energy policies, including wind power. He reminded the crowd that Republican candidate Mitt Romney said of wind power "You can't drive a car with a windmill on it," and then Obama used that to get in a little zinger, saying "I don't know if he's actually tried that. I know he's had other things on his car," a reference to Romney's questionable practice of hauling his dog Seamus on the roof of his car.
The thing is, both these guys are wrong.
First, let's look at Romney's claim that you can't put a windmill on a car. You should try hiring some kids who can use The Google, Mitt, because a California team built a windmill-powered car called the Blackbird that not only uses a windmill for power, but proved that it's possible to travel downwind faster than the wind itself. And upwind, too, of course. You absolutely can put a windmill on a car. Generally, you wouldn't want to, but I think there's ways to get power from windmills to a car and everywhere else remotely. Since Romney seems to be a fan of coal, he can remind himself of this every time he doesn't see someone shoveling coal into a Prius. The "wires and batteries" idea works the same way for both coal and wind.
For Obama, he may have just meant it as a joke, but let's look deeper and assume his real motive was to suggest that Romney had experimented with dog-powered cars. That's been tried, too. Way more often than you'd think. In 1875 (Cynosphere), 1939 (Poochmobile), and even in 2008. What the hell is the matter with these people?
So, Presidents and Candidates: leave the weird car stuff to us, okay? You two have fun fighting it out, and shoot us an email next time before you say anything car related, please. In return I'll maybe vote for one of you.