Freedom Run's sounds and graphics are cute, from the goofy "Hail to the Chief" soundtrack to the sign-waving crowds lining up along the streets of Washington D.C. The people will cheer you as you leap over banana peels, and jeer you when you fall. That's democracy for you. (Keeping with the spirit of freedom, you have a choice of turning the sounds on and off.)

Freedom Run adds another element of competition by encouraging players to submit their scores. The leader board lists daily, monthly and all-time high-scores from around the world. As of Dec. 10, the top score was 799.43 meters. Although so far I've failed to break 400, "Lui" is hereby on notice that I'm gunning for his record.

The app has one bug that I'm aware of. Players submitting a score who haven't upgraded their device to the version 2.2 operating software sometimes get an error saying their score is invalid. (My 12-year-old nephew rather rudely received the message, which also accused him of cheating. He had no problem after he upgraded his iPhone's system software. And, no, I don't fully understand why a 12-year-old has an iPhone, either.)

Bottom line: Freedom Run is goofy, good-natured fun for kids and adults of all political stripes. But watch out for those pesky banana peels!

The application is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.1 software update.