Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Michelle Malkin had a scoop yesterday: NBC's Dateline program put out a call for Muslims--but only those who "look Muslim"--to parade around at a NASCAR event, hoping to draw a hostile reaction from red-state "bigots" that NBC could film. So Dateline wanted to stage a fake news story intended to discredit NASCAR fans (i.e., conservatives) by catching them in the act of bigotry.

They wore American flag caps and Dale Earnhardt Jr. caps, dressed in golf shirts and T-shirts and no shirts, carried heaping piles of french fries and held the hands of their children.

They were "NASCAR dads." And in less than six weeks, according to the pundits, they will play a major role in electing the next president of the United States.

The dads, on the other hand, are just worrying about the Nextel Cup points race.

Most of those walking into Dover International Speedway this weekend didn't know they had been the labeled as a critical voting bloc in this presidential election, taking over for the "soccer moms" of four years ago (though "security moms" recently have been pushing the NASCAR dads to the side.)

Most of the men were not completely sure what a "NASCAR dad" was supposed to be.

"It means everyday people, average Joes," said Wilmington, Del.'s John O'Neill, 46, there with his granddaughter Samantha.

"NASCAR is America, there's no way around it," Tom Van Vliet said after buying Earnhardt Jr. souvenirs with his wife, Cindy, and 8-year-old daughter, Heidi.