The U.S. election might still be up for grabs, but it seems that in one area, Barack Obama has already beaten Republican rival John McCain – in the sphere of spam emails.

The Democratic nominee’s name appeared in spam email subject lines seven times more often then that of McCain last month, reports the Inquirer newspaper.

Among the message titles that crossed the mining radar of the Secure Computing IT company included:

“Barack Obama Team In Crisis As George W Bush Lends Him 'Full Support'”

“Obama Supporters Attack Hillary In Second Life”

“Jesus Endorses Obama; Four Horsemen Opt for McCain”

“Obama Ahead Amongst Voters With Similarly Weird Names”

The Vice Presidential candidates were a different story, with Sarah Palin edging out her opponent Joe Biden by a margin of five to four.

“Palin and Obama were the most targeted by spammers because they got more media attention during the month,” said the firm’s director Sven Krasser. “Spam trends generally follow media trends, they're just trying to judge what the public is interested in.”

Meanwhile political spam has gone interstellar, after 501 messages were beamed from Earth to the Gliese 581c planet, which scientists believe may support life.

The message included pictures of famous people’s faces, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama. They posed side by side, representing good and evil, explained X-Files star Gillian Anderson, who submitted the picture.

It will take 20.5 years for the digital time capsule to reach its destination.

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