It’s not often I write about cycling and politics in the same post, but I just had to report on the exchange about Barack Obama over at the Eastern Bloc Cycling Club forum. It all started with a link to an AP story and photo of the senator riding his bike along Lake Michigan. One guy who works at Benidorm Bikes and Boards, who is also an adjunct professor of Geography at my university, said he looked like a dork, and that at least we now have a mountain biker in the White House. This “dork” statement arose from what he thought was a very large fender on the back of the senator’s bike. Since this guy works in a bike shop, one would think that he would recognize a tag-along bike trailer when he saw one!

Another guy retorted, “ right now we have a criminal in the WH, passing off as a president. Dork or world-class leader, Obama will be a major improvement.”

This led to a full out political battle, including allegations that Obama would impose a luxury tax on bicycles (dude, that would only be on ones that cost more than $40,000 — please tell me why you need a solid gold bicycle?) as well as a link to Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle.

What bugs me most about the posts by my so-called colleague in Geography is his cracks about other academics – e.g. “When it comes to my President I want someone with “bottom”, not a light weight intellectual. I work with them at CCSU every semester.”

At least he didn’t call us intellectual light-weights — still, I’m wondering if his chair and department mates would like to hear that? Also, not sure what he means by bottom. Is he comparing the sizes of the two senators’ read-ends? !

You can read the entire exchange here. I’m about to go on vacation in Turkey for two weeks, starting Wednesday, so won’t be replying to this anymore, and won’t be moderating this blog until I get back.