Since Election Day 2004, we’ve kept track of committed support for various 2008 presidential contenders, indicated by sales of Election 2008 bumper stickers, magnets, campaign buttons, and American Apparel t-shirts. Lately we’ve added yard signs, lapel stickers and union made t-shirts for the presidential candidates as well. 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 May 4 to May 10, 2008:
Barack Obama 2008: 82.6%
Hillary Clinton 2008: 15.3%
Al Gore: 1.5%
Mike Gravel 2008: 0%
Others: 0.6%
Yes, that’s Al Gore in there. Some people are still nursing the hope that Al Gore will be the Democratic Presidential nominee. Nobody seems to care about the still-running Mike Gravel any more. I guess it helps to be an also-ran if you won a Nobel Peace Prize and junk.
