I was born and raised in Alabama and I think you are very wrong.
Besides, why does it have to be bigger than Powell’s endorsement? It can still matter without being the most important or wide-reaching endorsement Obama has under his belt. Like I said, I’m not personally a NASCAR fan, but I know plenty of people who are far more into NASCAR than any other sport and to them, this might mean something.
I was being a ironic, like ETF was originally, and I didn’t compare it just to Powell, I compared it to all the other big things that have happened for Obama in the last few weeks. This election looks like it was clinched weeks ago, but askeptic thought it was a huge deal and Tuckerfan did the Jeebus thing, so I was wondering why they think anybody is going to be swayed by a NASCAR driver at this point.
For the same reason someone would be swayed by what an actor has to say about politics: Some people are idiots. Seriously.
Whenever there’s a particularly “hot” NASCAR driver, you’ll see the nutters come out of the woodwork, doing crazy things like painting their Chevette/Pinto/Yugo/beater so that it matches the paint scheme on their favored driver’s car. They obsess over every detail about the driver and his car, and if you’re not careful, they’ll proceed to rattle of stats worthy of the most obsessed baseball fan. I remember seeing a news account about a particular family who followed a NASCAR driver who was sponsored by Tide. Their neighbors all said that they could tell when that driver had won a race, because every house in the neighborhood would suddenly have an empty box of Tide stuck on their mailboxes.
When Dale Earnhart died in a crash, it was a bigger deal than Reagan kicking off. People painted their cars and trucks to match his, plastered memorial stickers all over their cars, and wore black armbands. By comparison, Johnny Cash’s passing was barely a blip on the radar (and I live one town over from where Cash did, so you’d think that’d have a bigger impact than Dale’s death).
I present you with Michael Williams, senator in Tennesee self identifies as member of the NASCAR Party
Really. I mean, this is JUNIOR FREAKIN’ JOHNSON! This isn’t some young punk who was racing carts last year.
Anybody hear how King Richard’s leaning?
Thanks to BrainGlutton in my other thread, it’s here.
I don’t really care how important or unimportant anybody thinks this is. The fact of the matter is I saw the post by ETF, knowing her to be a long time poster not known for innacurate posts, I went off half cocked and called a friend of mine in Alabama who really really would care about who Junior Johnson endorsed, enough maybe to reconsider his vote. He told me I was full of shit and needed to stop reading liberal blogs and not to be so gullible. When I tried to back up the story I was unable to confirm it. Still no confirmation other than blog sites.
Not to sidetrack the thread even further but, getting beyond my incredulity that driving a car around the same circle over and over really fast is considered a sport (Sorry, I simply don’t get it), do Southerners consider Junior Johnson to be the Michael Jordan of race car drivers? Why have I never heard of this bloke?
Probably because you use words like “bloke”. 
He stopped being a driver a number of years back and now an owner. He’s probably not someone you’re going to hear being talked about unless you’re dealing with one of the hardcore nutters. (Oh, and I agree, its not really a sport.)
More akin to Babe Ruth. He discovered drafting, won the Winston Cup a few times before it was the Winston Cup… His driving days ended about 1966 or so.
He’s one of the last of the old authentic Moonshine runners. He is Papa Redneck.
Richard Petty is a man. A lot of people like him, a lot of people hate him.
Junior Johnson is an icon.
I am handling some poll-watching duties for the Obama campaign in Georgia. This is the day that advance voting opens up on a broad basis here. (There had been one or two polls open per county before this week.)
This morning I went to pick up my badge from county election officials. There was a sign-in sheet for poll watchers. Emblematic of Obama’s superior organization, 12 official Obama poll watchers had signed in and picked up their badges, while McCain had…0.
I stopped by two polling stations to check for problems. The lines were absolutely astonishing. I counted approximately 500 people waiting to vote at each polling place, and this was mid-afternoon, the time of day when even on the principle election day, lines are usually reduced to a dribble.
I can promise you that the people I saw were not waiting for three hours to vote McCain. 
Meanwhile, my just-turned-18 nephew is champing at the bit to vote for Obama, as are many of his friends. They are planning to vote early. Now these are kids from Atlanta’s Republican suburbs, many of whose parents support McCain. They have been squabbling with their parents over politics for weeks – and tuning in nightly to the Daily Show. This is a cohort I believe pollsters are missing. The kids are voting this year.
Look for an Obama upset in Georgia, and look for Saxby Chambliss(R) to lose his Senate seat to Jim Martin(D).
See now, this is a shame. Not because of a ‘D’ replacing an ‘R’ but because we are losing such a great name in the Senate. Perhaps we can get a ‘D’ in Georgia named Frenchhornby Bourbonesque or Glosckienspielor Absinthia.
Seriously. Minnesota is doing its part by running Elwin Tinklenberg. The rest of y’all gotta pick up the slack.
This is totally, ludicrously partisan, but I managed to amuse myself enough to share it.
So I was talking to someone who is undecided. I made an offhand comment that I think the presidenctial race is an “obvious choice.” The undecided voter asked, “Obvious? Really?”
I said, imagine having to choose between a delicious chocolate cake made from scratch and a box of stale Froot Loops.
That’s pretty much how I see the presidential election at this point. I don’t know what the best dessert metaphor for Obama is, but the Froot Loops for me sums up McCain’s’ campaign pretty well.
No offense to Kellogg, inc., who makes many fine products.
You might be interested in this editorial by David Sedaris. In it, he makes the following observation (of which yours reminded me):
I saw Mr. Sedaris reading that piece last week. It was hilarious. (When he read it, he said “human shit” instead of “platter of shit,” which he then explained the New Yorker made him change)
The Daily Show’s John Oliver breaks down the undecideds.
I haven’t seen this posted yet, so here’s a definite sign that the McCain camp is simply pathetically desperate: Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama.
I guess this is their best material that they were saving for the last ten days.