Pumpkin carving designs -- the political edition

Well, with only two weeks to go until Halloween it's not too early to think about unique pumpkin carving designs.

As this is a political blog, we prefer the political pumpkins. Despite being an off-election year (unless you live in Virginia or New Jersey), if 2008 is any guide, we're guessing that there will be plenty of satirical pumpkins celebrating our elected officials.

We scoured the Internet and found some pretty entertaining ones from last year. The Democrats won big in 2008. And it appeared from the pumpkins we found that the Dems had much more fun lampooning their Republican counterparts.

There were plenty of Sarah Palin jack-o'-lanterns from last year. Most of them aren't complimentary. For example, here's one from a couple who must believe Palin is satanic. But happily satanic, anyway.

What's Halloween without Dick Cheney? Those on the left undoubtedly think October 31 and the former vice president go hand-in-hand.

This pumpkin is hands-down the best of all comers. Because it's actually carved -- old school. And it's a pretty good likeness. Of course the slanted smile sets it up well. But somehow the nose and the eyes work too.

This one is pretty good as well.

As for Joe Biden? Really nothing. How would you parody Biden on a pumpkin anyway? He's made plenty of gaffes since becoming vice president, but perhaps the only way you could portray Biden humorously in a pumpkin would be to do something with his hair plugs style. We predict something will show up this Halloween.

There are tons of McCain pumpkins out there. There's this one which looks like a cross between John McCain and Iron Maiden's mascot "Eddie." Whoever carved this pumpkin put a lot of work into it. Does it look like McCain? Not necessarily -- but we admire the work.

What got us laughing, however, was someone who decided to document their aging jack-o'-lantern. And you could call it agism, perhaps, but they decided to call this pumpkin "Old man McCain."

Pumpkins don't age well. The McCain pumpkin didn't either. Here's McCain the next day. And, wow, the McCain o'-lantern really went downhill fast. And it kept going downhill. Writes the carver, "He is looking a bit grumpy now." You call that grumpy??

Thankfully, the real McCain has held up much better than this.

There were plenty of President Bush pumpkins from last year. Some less complimentary than others.

As for our current president, many people took advantage of the unique Obama campaign logo from last year. Or the logo and the word "hope" which was part of his 2008 campaign. Although not everyone was a fan.

How do you carve any of these pumpkins? Don't ask us. We're only allowed to use rubber butter knives. But here's a website with some tips. And if you want to watch someone who's really, really good at this -- check out the video below.

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Hey, we promise never to make fun of you when carving our pumpkins. But if we do, we'll let you know on Twitter. So follow us!