Candidate Roll Call

Living in Canada, there's a lot of boys and girls with aspirations of becoming Prime Minister or an NHL star with their own hockey card. I would have to imagine that there's also a bunch of children in the US with dreams of being President and a baseball star. As my southern neighbors head into an election year, Democrats and Republicans are being featured on cardboard like never before.

In case you're keeping track here's what to look out for:

2007 eTopps Allen & Ginter Presidential Candidates (/999)
1. Hillary Clinton
2. Barack Obama
3. Mitt Romney
4. John McCain

2008 Donruss Americana
23. Mike Huckabee

• hobby version has foil finish, retail version does not

Parallels and inserts:

• Private Signings Autograph (/275)
• Star Materials (/250)
• Star Materials Gold Proofs (/25)
• Star Materials Silver Proofs (/100)
• Star Signature Materials (/225)
• Gold Proofs (/100)
• Platinum Proofs (/25)
• Silver Proofs (/250)

2008 Topps
PP-1. Boston Red Sox
One version shows a Photoshopped Rudy Giuliani celebrating with Boston Red Sox.

2008 Topps Series One Campaign 2008
(Gold Parallels also exist. Gold cards were only available in jumbo packs.)
Barack Obama
Bill Richardson
Dennis Kucinich
Fred Thompson
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
John McCain
Joseph Biden
Mike Huckabee
Mitt Romney
Ron Paul
Rudy Giuliani


2008 Topps Series One Campaign Cut Signatures (/15)
Barrack Obama
Fred Thompson
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
John McCain

2008 Upper Deck Presidential Predictors
PP-1. Rudi Giuliani
PP-2. John Edwards
PP-3. John McCain
PP-4. Barack Obama
PP-5. Mitt Romney
PP-6. Fred Thompson
PP-7. Hillary Clinton (card was pulled and should not be considered to be a part of the set, however some copies have surfaced)
PP-8. Al Gore/George W. Bush
PP-9. Wild Card - John Stewart/ Bill O'Reilly

Topps also included the Presidential Stamp Collection in 2008 Topps Series One, featuring past Presidents. The cards have actual stamps embedded in them.

Seeing as how these are just the first couple of sets of the year and they're generating tons of mainstream attention, don't be surprised if politics continue to pop up in more packs of baseball cards. Upper Deck has already stated they'll have a new Presidential Predictor for Clinton in their upcoming 2008 Spectrum Baseball set. I bet Topps will offer shinier versions of the Campaign 2008 cards in Topps Chrome.

I'm just curious as to why there's not a full-on non-sport set around the subject. It'd be a pretty easy set to put together: candidates, Congress, the voting process, past Presidents, autographs, media pundits (yes, I want a Stewart/Colbert dual autograph if anyone's listening) and Michael Moore. And I'm just a Canadian looking for something other than a cold beer and a bag of chips to compliment my news watching for the coming months.

Keep your eyes peeled for a more complete selection of images.