[BlogEntry] My Quick Political Survey

So while in DC I stopped at a few gift shops (hotel and airport, 'natch) to grab some stuff for the family. It's interesting to play the game of political souvenirs, because for every "Clinton in 2008!" shirt there's a "Dear God, Another Clinton??" shirt. Repeat for all presidential candidates, as well as the current president. I was wondering if you could survey the feelings of the shopkeeper based on the amount and distribution of the merchandise. That is, do all the pro-Bush items get the best displays?

Anyway. At the hotel gift shop, next to the cash register was a basket of candidate buttons. You know, the "Edwards in 08!" or "Vote Romney!" sort of thing. All basically the same size, all either red or blue, and basically just a big basket of buttons that appeared to all come from the same source. I asked the lady behind the register, "Which button sells the most?"

"There's no Barrack Obama in that basket," she said. "He's sold out."

She was right. There you go. Quick political poll. I thought for a minute, as per my comments above, that an anti-Obama shop could simply choose not to put his buttons out, but if that was the case then she wouldn't tell me that he was sold out and make him out to be the most popular.

(To be completely honest about the story I've translated pretty heavy for the poor woman who had trouble with her English. What she really said was something more along the lines of "Which one is black? His buttons all gone." Earlier when I'd walked into the shop I asked, "Do you have any sort of coloring books that I could take home to my kids?" and she said, "You want t-shirt?")