Yard Sign Wars

Unlike the Irish, Americans love people knowing what party they vote for. They love to adorn their cars with the candidates' bumper stickers and to decorate their front lawns with their yard signs. As a by-product of the mutual dislike of Republicans and Democrats, some neighbourhoods, there have been experiencing "yard sign wars". This can range from the trivial - everyone trying to keep up with the Jones' with bigger and multiple signs for opposing candidates, to the sinister - people robbing signs of the opposing candidate.

It all seems very petty but I can guarantee you it goes on. I took the above photograph while out canvassing today and while it is of course very amusing, some people are getting very upset about it. When I was in the Mc Cain headquarters the other day, a guy was filling out an 'Incident Report Form' which I was told was being passed on to the Albuquerque Police Department. He filled out the form and added it to the already overflowing stack. I haven't heard of as many Obama signs being robbed but that's only anecdotal.

Here's a flavour of what I've been seeing while I've been here.

(Click on this one above to get a closer look at the little leaflet stuck onto it)