There was a traffic jam on the floor of the Detroit Auto Show Monday afternoon, but it wasn’t cars going bumper to bumper. The floor was lousy with presidential candidates and their surrogates trying to gain some traction in the final day  before Michigan’s Tuesday primary.

First came Sen. Joe Lieberman stumping for his man John McCain, followed by a modest entourage of media and handlers. Then came native son Mitt Romney, whose late father George was a popular Michigan governor in the ‘60s, but, more important to this crowd, was CEO of American Motors in the 1950s. Romney was accompanied by his wife Ann, son Tag and a mob of media. After checking out Ford’s new pickup truck, he headed for the big General Motors display next door, where GM VP Mark LeNeve gave him a politically correct tour of the automaker’s greenest vehicles – the hybrid Chevy Malibu family car and a hybrid Tahoe SUV. The gas guzzling 602-horsepower Corvette ZR1 sitting a few feet away did not merit a walk-by from the candidate.

But then, as Romney gave an impromptu press conference on the fake grass in front of a fuel cell powered Chevy SUV, another mass of media moved into his orbit. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was taking his own tour of the GM display, looking over the very same eco-friendly models Romney had just worked for photo ops. The candidate near-collision caused a commotion among GM’s traffic controllers. A GM official quickly approach company VP Debbie Dingell and said: “When McCain comes in later, you need to lead Huckabee around the back of the Saturn display.” Dingell, who knows the ways of Washington as wife of powerful Democratic Congressman John Dingell, moved into action. And no presidential pile-ups were reported on the show floor.

Let's go to the tape: