New economic stimulus plan: sell as much Obama schwag as you can

Hope. Inspiration. Brighter future. Change the world, blah blah blah. What continues to amaze me is the amount of money people are making on Barack Obama’s name and image. There have been plenty of jokes that the Kool-Aid’s been passed around among excited or obsessed Obama supporters but now its reaching critical levels of absurdity. I’m not sure if I’ve seen one person’s face or name so quickly

There are all the professionally made T-shirts sold in shops and boutiques and the still impressive B-rates being sold in gas stations, out of backpacks and on street corners. Yes, the buttons, water bottles and typical paraphernalia. We’ve all seen the commercials for the commemorative coins and plates.

P Diddy opened up a new club this weekend in D.C. At the top of the full-page ad in the Washington City Paper it reads “A CHANGE HAS COME. A NEW PRESIDENT HAS BEEN ELECTED AND THE BIRTH OF A NEW MEGA CLUB IN OUR NATIONS CAPITOL.”

Then there are the Obama chocolate carved statues, Obama soap, Obama pillow (I love you Obama but I sure the hell don’t want to go to sleep and wake up staring at you), and though apparently not for sale, a beer named “The Audacity of Hops.”

The other day in passing I met a local man who didn’t have a place to sleep at night but was selling Obama bobble heads.

I ran into a group of out of work artists from New York City selling Obama playing cards. Play your cards right and you win the election. Card designer Kurt Biegb lost his job at a Jewish women’s non-profit after being swindled in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. So he got together with a few unemployed friends to make the game. We spoke Saturday in Union Station shortly after the arrival of Barack’s train in Washington.

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