Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Much is being said today regarding which country produced the presidential candidates' campaign busses. While both Bush and Kerry claim to be pro American jobs, each of their campaign busses were manufactured in Canada, thus taking jobs away from hard-working Americans. Standard Deviance, however, feels a deeper issue is being missed here: What are the countries of origin of their sports equipment?




President Bush, being an avid sports enthusiast and runner, certainly has a need for sneakers. The question is, where do those sneakers come from?

It looks to me that the President is wearing New Balance sneakers in the picture above. While New Balance is a US company with it's main headquarters in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the CEO of the company admits, "We do make some shoes overseas". A ha! With every stride of his runner gait the President is beating into the ground the hopes and dreams of the many American sneaker-producers whose jobs have been outsourced.



Don't believe that the presidential challenger is innocent in this matter. Take a look at his sail.

The sail seems to be a Gaastra sail. While Gaastra is a very well-respected company in the sport of windsurfing, it was founded by a Dutchman and is now headquartered in Hong Kong. A doubly foreign product, the shame. Senator Kerry similarly insults the pride of American Windsurf-makers with every turn of his sail.

Much has been uncovered today in the sordid buying patterns of these candidates. Whether their possessions are Canadian, Hong Kong-ian, or country-of-origin-undetermined-ian, it is clear that the candidates are not loyal to American producers. But one thing is certain: Ralph Nader's Frisbee is domestically produced.

Campaigns spar over Canadian buses [CNN]