Past and Present Candidates Featured on Parody Baseball Cards
John McCain Upper Deck baseball card. (AP Photo)
BOSTON — Fred Thompson flopped in his bid to become president, but he’s wearing the crown in a new set of baseball cards: He’s Babe Ruth, the original home run king.
And Mitt Romney isn’t waving goodbye to the presidential race, he’s waving the ball fair as Carlton Fisk in the 1975 World Series in Upper Deck’s Presidential Predictors set.
Don’t go digging through the store shelves for a Hillary Clinton card, though. She was cast as Morganna the “Kissing Bandit” because, “Like Clinton, she saw something she liked and went after it.” But the card was pulled from the set after an informal focus group raised concerns that it was inappropriate.
“Our goal with the program was to have fun and be entertaining and not to be offensive,” said Louise Curcio, a spokeswoman for the Upper Deck Company. “There was some concern by some of the people that it might be offensive, and we didn’t want to go down that path. So we pulled the card.”
The Presidential Predictors cards are included in one of every eight sets of Upper Deck 2008 Series One Baseball cards. Collectors who find one of the political cards can register for a chance to win a trip to throw out the first pitch at a major league game.
Curcio would not say how many of each card was made. The company tried to pull all of the Clinton versions, but at least one made it out and onto eBay, showing Clinton in green short shorts squeezing tight against a lipstick-smeared ballplayer.
“Hillary Rodham Clinton and Morganna Roberts, baseball’s infamous ‘Kissing Bandit,’ share a similar life strategy: go after what you want and get it!” the card reads. But unlike Roberts, who would dash onto ballfields and kiss players during games, it credits Clinton for generating headlines with “her reforms, initiatives and current bid for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination.”
An updated set to be released in May will have a different version of the Clinton card, Curcio said. The company might also add one for Mike Huckabee, who didn’t appear to be a keeper when the set was put together near the end of the 2007 baseball season.
“We looked at the active candidates at the time, and he wasn’t one that was rising to the surface,” Curcio said. “If Huckabee continues to do as well as he’s been doing, we’ll put him in as well.”
John McCain’s card portrays him as a sweet-swinging Ted Williams, a fellow war veteran. Republican dropout Rudy Giuliani is credited with saving New York on his card — just like 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier, who reached over the outfield fence to turn Derek Jeter’s playoff fly ball into a home run.
Chicagoan Barack Obama is Jermaine Dye, the White Sox outfielder who won the 2005 World Series MVP. John Edwards’ card compares him to Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, who followed his one-game stint in the majors with a career caring for children and their families.
A “Wild Card” entry has fake news anchor Jon Stewart as Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, landing a punch in the face of conservative gabber Bill O’Reilly, decked out as Robin Ventura, in their 1992 dustup.
Al Gore’s 2000 presidential near-miss has a card of its own: Like Red Sox infielder Jose Offerman in the 1999 playoffs against the Yankees, Gore is called out even though George W. Bush, as New York second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, clearly missed the tag.
Curcio said the company did not contact the campaigns.
“We haven’t heard from any of them,” she said. “Do you think we will?”
You know, I agree with Karen. John McCain is a Liberal in disguise, Clinton is a joke just like your hubby plus Bill would look extremely ugly in a dress, and I do not know much about Obama.
Maybe I will vote for the small guy known as Huckabee.
You still here, Stu? More of the same from you, huh? Name calling and Proclamations!!!! I am sure you have done lots of “Research”.
How about this right from MSNBC:
NEWPORT, R.I. - Republican campaign dropout Mitt Romney agreed Thursday to endorse Sen. John McCain and asked his national convention delegates to swing behind the party front-runner, according to officials familiar with the decision.
Say it with me, Stu..
“McCain-Romney 2008!!!!!” or how about “John and Mitt - Together for a Brighter Future”
HA-HA!!!!!!!
T. F. Otmi,
I agree that one must consider all the issues, and find a candidate who values what they value. May I reiterate my previous statement. Join the Independent Party!! You’ll find a lot more candidates who fit your criteria.
You assume that I haven’t researched the platforms and studied the issues. What a pathetic schmuck! The only reason you haven’t joined the Independent Party is because you realize that it will never pull off a win. You want to vote for a winner. You would rather sit the fence and wait to see who’s going to win than to voice your opinion by voting independent. You say that I have a blindfold over my eyes, which it the biggest load of bull I’ve heard. Anyhow, I’d rather “wear a blindfold” than be a fair-weathered constituent who waits to see who it’s gonna be, then cast your vote! COWARD!!
I am a republican, but moreso I am a conservative. For examples, I feel it is important to “conserve” life, which is why I would never be pro-choice. All abortion teaches society to do is not own up to its actions. (Something a fair-weathered voter like yourself would know nothing about). Don’t try me schmuck!!
And your Bush comment carries little weight b/c the conservative based has disowned him. He changed his stances! We didn’t! (Another thing a fair-weathered voter would know nothing about) Yo;re already off deciding on which dem to vote for; seeing as how it will be one of them in oval office.
Don’t hold your breathe looking for Romney to appear on the ticket, cuz it won’t happen. He’s looking on to 2012 where he will sweep the nomination like Reagan in ‘80. (You’ll know when to cast you vote when you start to see it become a landslide) Meanwhile Juan McVain will be in a rest home being read his last rights.
Best of luck Otmi!
Reasonable Food for Thought
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120209536777639949.html
To Stu,
The Fact Of the matter is I never said I was a staunch McCain supporter, never said I was a Republican, never said I was a Democrat. Maybe I AM an Republican-Leaning Independant.
The point I was trying to make is most REASONABLE people in this country are closer to the middle of BOTH parties. Obviously, you cannot be considered reasonable since all you can do is regurgitate all the Right-Wing Republican Buzzwords and policies then attack anyone that does not blindly march along. I would hope most REASONABLE people will look at ALL the issues, find a candidate that suits their sensibilities the BEST and vote for them.
For example, I am Pro-Abortion, but want TOUGH Immigration laws with now reward for being in this country illegally. In your world, I cannot be a Republican (not conservative enough) and I cannot be a Democrat (not liberal enough).
All I know is that President Bush is right up your “Conservative” Republican alley, and you can see where that has gotten us. Enough of your name calling and disrespect. That’s all you seem to be able to do - now put your Conservative Blindfold back on and re-insert your head you know where. Take a tissue with you to dry away your tears when you see Romney on the Ticket.
FYI - I voted for BUSH that last TWO times because both the Democratic candidates were too far LEFT for me.
To T. F. Otmi:
Do you really think that Romney would smear his name by being on the same ticket as a liberal??!!….what a joke!
For a pretty staunch McCain supporter you actually sound rather nervious that ol’ Johnny-Boy won’t be able to pull his own party’s support unless he brings on his own archrival, Romney, to rally the core of the party.
There is a party for you, T. F. Otmi, its known as the Independent Party. Why don’t you and Juan McVain go hop on over instead of using the Republican Party to spout your ideals and bloviated messages–no one is saying you can’t.
As for Mitt’s stepping down so that the party could have time to rally together, nothing could be classier of a candidate than to admit defeat and do so for the benefit of the party. It’s sad though that McCain didn’t even love the party enough to accept its invitation to the CPAC last year, and now he’s the party’s flag bearer…..EAT CROW, HOME-BOY!!
McCain swears he can unite the party. Frankly, I’ve never seen it so divide. Good job, Juan!
McCain had better study up on his military strategy (especially Bunker Hill), b/c all he’s going to have is an uphill battle trying to rally together the party for November. He’s going to get TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS!! Hopefully, it will be enough to awaken the party.
For those of you worried about Huckabee’s tax record, check this article out by Dick Morris (very respected political analyist). Very interesting as the only objection that Republicans seem to have about Huckabee is his tax record. Can we get this out to the public?
November 28, 2007
Huckabee is a Fiscal Conservative
By Dick Morris
As Mike Huckabee rises in the polls, an inevitable process of vetting him for conservative credentials is under way in which people who know nothing of Arkansas or of the circumstances of his governorship weigh in knowingly about his record. As his political consultant in the early ’90s and one who has been following Arkansas politics for 30 years, let me clue you in: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative.
A recent column by Bob Novak excoriated Huckabee for a “47 percent increase in state tax burden.” But during Huckabee’s years in office, total state tax burden — all 50 states combined — rose by twice as much: 98 percent, increasing from $743 billion in 1993 to $1.47 trillion in 2005.
In Arkansas, the income tax when he took office was 1 percent for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest, exactly where it stood when he left the statehouse 11 years later. But, in the interim, he doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, repealed capital gains taxes for home sales, lowered the capital gains rate, expanded the homestead exemption and set up tax-free savings accounts for medical care and college tuition.
Most impressively, when he had to pass an income tax surcharge amid the drop in revenues after Sept. 11, 2001, he repealed it three years later when he didn’t need it any longer.
He raised the sales tax one cent in 11 years and did that only after the courts ordered him to do so. (He also got voter approval for a one-eighth-of-one-cent hike for parks and recreation.)
He wants to repeal the income tax, abolish the IRS and institute a “fair tax” based on consumption, and opposes any tax increase for Social Security.
Your rock yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
McCAIN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: McCain-Kennedy
Now he tries to persuade conservative that he has “listened to America” & realizes that we need to secure the border first. WHAT HE’S NOT TELLING AMERICA is that he’s still for a pathway to citizenship! There is no “go home and get in line” statement!! What’s even worse is that he wants to bring more over to America (all their families)……LIBERAL!!!!
Our nation is loosing its identity…..WE NOW LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO, and McCain is fine with that!!…..HELP!!