The August Popular Mechanics passes on this comment from David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, bemoaning NHTSA’s inability to take our cellphones out of our vehicles:

“There is actually a regulatory doughnut hole.”

Strickland complained that NHTSA can only control a car’s “hardware, connecting software, and vehicle apps.” PM adds that the Federal Communications Commission’s hands “are also tied. For now, it’s on the states.”

This demonstrates how important a presidential vote is, not merely because of the candidate, but because of the candidate’s hangers-on who get federal jobs when he takes office. The Obama administration is clearly in the hands of the safety sissies, those who would undoubtedly remove us completely out of our cars if they could because, you know, it’s just not safe out there.

There is no evidence that cellphones are a bigger driver distraction than anything else, but that doesn’t matter to Strickland, or transportation secretary Ray LaHood (an alleged Republican), or those who answer to them. One can only imagine what Obama and his apparatchiks have in mind after a successful election in November.