Since the Election Day debacle of 2004, we’ve kept track of committed support for various presidential contenders, indicated by sales of Election 2008 bumper stickers, magnets, campaign buttons, t-shirts and yard signs. While polls measure fickle opinions, our measure tracks the stronger commitment marked by the laying down of cash to promote a candidate in public. The more strongly committed are more likely to caucus and to vote. The following is the percent share of sales of our Election 2008 gear in the past week of February 3 to February 9, 2008:

Barack Obama 2008: 72.5%
Hillary Clinton 2008: 23.3%
Mike Gravel 2008: less than 1%
Others: 4.2%

This is the second week in a row of blowout results favoring Barack Obama. A lot has happened in the past week. Have the events of this week altered Obama’s popularity? Let’s take a look, breaking out last week into smaller clumps of time:

Hillary Clinton gained a bit more in sales as the week progressed, and Barack Obama a bit less, but broadly speaking there weren’t any big changes from before Super Tuesday to after, right up through the Saturday caucuses.