It’s official: Barack Obama has given up on the NASCAR vote. On Friday, Sports Illustrated reported that Obama’s campaign was “in talks to become the primary sponsor of BAM Racing’s No. 49 Sprint Cup car for the Pocono race on August 3,” and to be the first presidential candidate in history to sponsor a NASCAR car. The car is a Toyota and driven by Ken Schrader. Many bloggers found this ridiculous. Michelle Malkin said it was clear that Obama was trying to “buy the NASCAR vote.” Sister Toldjah added, “It’s all part of his campaign to appeal for the working class white voters he lost in light of the Rev. Wright controversy.” And TNR‘s Jason Zengerle asked, “Will it matter to the voters Obama’s trying to court with this move that the car he’s going to sponsor is a Toyota?” Of course, many bloggers correctly predicted that Obama would flip-flop on the NASCAR sponsorship. Hugh Hewitt said that “given his record over the past month, he’ll probably change his mind and skip the sponsorship.” And Dave in Texas at Ace of Spades wrote, “Too inconsistent with his greeny marxism. But if it’s true, we will enjoy kicking his carbon footprint over it.” But of course, an Obama campaign spokesman 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.” As The Gateway Pundit says, “Obama was for fast cars before he was against them.” The Los Angeles Times‘s Dan Neil notes that perhaps it is a good thing he didn’t sponsor the car because “a losing outing for Obama’s car–and Schrader has as much chance of winning as Jesse Jackson has of getting the democratic vice presidential nod–might actually hurt Obama with NASCAR dads.” A Daily Kos blogger agrees: “the publicity behind a crashed Obama car, the car getting booed, or not qualifying would bring unecessary attention and claims of symbolism behind Obama’s difficulty in breaking through with working white class voters from Appalachia.” The Next Right’s Sean Hackbarth concludes, “McCain has an opening to connect to NASCAR fans. I’m not recommending he sponsor a car, but getting to a race as soon as possible to get some pictures taken with drivers would make for a nice contrast.”
