No holds barred in the battle of US bumper stickers

"Kick their ass and take their gas" was the foreign policy suggestion on the back of an oversize jeep weaving its way through…

"Kick their ass and take their gas" was the foreign policy suggestion on the back of an oversize jeep weaving its way through Washington traffic this week. Every four years US cars get to speak their owners' minds.

The current electoral proliferation of bumper stickers has turned US roads into a jostling, petrol-guzzling polemic of slogans, aphorisms, and insults.

Even the shortest of drives leaves no doubt that a lot more thought goes into putting down the opposition than praising a favoured candidate.

"Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot" is a favourite anti-Bush slogan, as is "Osama still has his job. Do you still have yours?" and "George Bush: Four More Wars".

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"A lot of the Kerry merchandise isn't actually pro-Kerry, it's anti-Bush," said Maheesh Jain, whose online company CafePress.com sells the stickers and other paraphernalia. "On the Bush side, it's more pro-Bush than anti-Kerry, and most of it tends to be around the security issue."

Committed Republicans can take their pick from a wide range, much of it showing Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden or even Jacques Chirac endorsing the Democratic challenger. France is a particular target of the right since Paris's refusal to approve the Iraq war - as "For Sale: French Army Rifle. Clean. Never fired, Dropped Once" illustrates.

The bumper-borne literature draws a vivid picture of the political demographics of car ownership. In general, large, new SUVs carry more Bush stickers. Kerry signs are more likely on second-hand, smaller, often European cars.

As a political weather vane, bumper stickers have a reasonable record. Jain said his sales in 2000 were split evenly among Republicans and Democrats, foreshadowing the result. This year, he said, "it's still pretty even".