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Forget Polls, Here’s Tangible Proof the Obama Honeymoon is Over
U.S> News and World Report ^ | 2/4/10 | Doug Heye

Posted on 02/04/2010 9:37:34 AM PST by Impala64ssa

One sign that Washington, D.C., had been home to Obama Mania was the number of independent retailers selling all sorts of Obama merchandise. Every street corner, it seemed, had Obama wares (or Obama wear) for sale. Now, however, most of the winter caps for sale are not emblazoned with the Obama logo. T-shirts depicting our president as a dunking Michael Jordan, a victorious Muhammad Ali, or saber-baring Luke Skywalker (yes, these shirts all existed) are nowhere to be found.

This time last year, the Obama Store was teeming with customers. Ideally situated in the basement of Washington’s Union Station, the store was filled with consumers eager to buy anything with Obama’s likeness while others took pictures of the life-size cut-outs of the president and first lady. Now, the Obama Store is boarded up.

How quickly things change in a year.

The Obama Store was capitalism at its most brilliant rawness; find a market and exploit it quickly. The store made possible one-stop shopping for all of your tacky Obama merchandise needs. T-shirts! Hats! Calendars! Hand-warmers! Keychains! It was like something out of Spaceballs (“Obama: The Flame Thrower! The kids love this one.”). The store carried every imaginable product with the words “Obama” and “Commemorative,” except, notably, the Obama Chia Pet.

Of course, the closing of the Obama Store may not be due solely to Obama’s falling popularity. Perhaps the faltering economy (which Obama has nothing to do with, he keeps telling us) played a role. Regardless, the store was ideally situated to make big profits. Not only was it in the District of Columbia, where Obama won 93 percent of the vote, but Union Station is swarmed by the most wallet-opening demographic of them all—tourists!

Sure, polls are unanimous that support from Obama loyalists is receding, but polls pale in comparison to real anecdotal evidence. Last week, Amber Lee Ettinger, better known as “Obama Girl,” announced that she has fallen out of love with the president—leading to the question: If Obama has lost Obama Girl, has he lost America? Meanwhile, the Pepsi campaign that borrowed heavily from Obama has fizzled.

This Valentine’s Day, visitors to Union Station who had hoped to express their love for a significant other with a $20 pink T-shirt of Barack and Michelle Obama in a heart-shaped picture commemorating the “Presidential Romance” (or T-shirts of Obama and Joe Biden commemorating the “Presidential Bromance,” for that matter) may now be unable to do so. That the Obama Store—which apparently received no stimulus money—has closed may be the most tangible sign yet that the honeymoon is over.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: democrats; fail; failure; honeymoon; hopeychangey; obama; poll
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I can hear the song "It's Over" by the late great Roy Orbison in the background as I read this.
1 posted on 02/04/2010 9:37:35 AM PST by Impala64ssa
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To: Impala64ssa
Two months after Obama was crowned inaugurated, I recall seeing the commemorative plates in Walgreens marked down to $10.99 (the same plates that were being sold on TV for $19.99 + S&H).
2 posted on 02/04/2010 9:42:47 AM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (STOP GLOBAL WHINING!!)
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To: Impala64ssa
"...The store carried every imaginable product with the words “Obama” and “Commemorative,” except, notably, the Obama Chia Pet....

What - no Obama commemorative urinal cakes?

3 posted on 02/04/2010 9:45:25 AM PST by conservativeharleyguy (Democrats: Over 60 million fooled daily!)
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To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers

Ebay has Obama plates unsold at $0.99.


4 posted on 02/04/2010 9:45:55 AM PST by Huskrrrr
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To: Impala64ssa

I’d buy Obama toilet paper.


5 posted on 02/04/2010 9:46:45 AM PST by Huskrrrr
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To: Impala64ssa

6 posted on 02/04/2010 9:48:14 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
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To: Impala64ssa

“This time last year, the Obama Store was teeming with customers.”

My boys and I went through there laughing hysterically at the crap they had back in July when we went to DC for the rally...the stuff was hilarious, cheap crap...not unlike dear reader...


7 posted on 02/04/2010 9:49:02 AM PST by jessduntno (If Bawney Fwank talks in his sleep, is it considered wetting the bed?)
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To: conservativeharleyguy

What - no Obama commemorative urinal cakes?
______________________

What we really need is toilet paper with 0bama’s face and Koran verse on alternating sheets. Kill two birds with one.......


8 posted on 02/04/2010 9:50:45 AM PST by dennisw (It all comes 'round again --Fairport)
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To: Impala64ssa

Reminds me of the Jimmah Carter years. When he was elected ther were tours of Plains, Ga to see his home, they even had a “train” called the Peanut Express.

Two years later there was nothing.No one went to Plains.


9 posted on 02/04/2010 9:51:27 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (BHP man!)
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To: Impala64ssa

“Say Goodnight, the party’s over....”

and Obama has run up an astronomical bill and skipped out on the tab.


10 posted on 02/04/2010 9:52:36 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Impala64ssa

barack shamwowbama


11 posted on 02/04/2010 9:52:59 AM PST by Vision Thing (He has a white house, and he wants to paint it black.)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: Impala64ssa

Rush just read this story on the air 10 seconds ago!

Right as I opened it!! He must be monitoring my movements!


13 posted on 02/04/2010 9:55:40 AM PST by RogerWilko
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To: conservativeharleyguy
"...What - no Obama commemorative urinal cakes?..."

Ahh, capitalism!

Available on ebay.

14 posted on 02/04/2010 9:56:35 AM PST by skimbell
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To: Huskrrrr
Ebay has Obama plates unsold at $0.99

Are they ceramic, or plastic. If they are plastic, I'll buy some.

But the Range will not let us bring glass or ceramics anyymore, ever since some jackass brought a used toilet to the plinking range and did not clean up the mess.

Just wondering...

15 posted on 02/04/2010 9:57:20 AM PST by Gorzaloon (GET him AWAY from the CAMERA!! They are all figuring it out!!!)
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To: Gorzaloon

LOL!


16 posted on 02/04/2010 9:59:11 AM PST by Huskrrrr
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To: conservativeharleyguy
What - no Obama commemorative urinal cakes?

Now THOSE would sell like hotcakes.
17 posted on 02/04/2010 10:04:48 AM PST by Dewey Revoltnow
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To: Huskrrrr
I’d buy Obama toilet paper.

Are you willing to risk the ensuing rash?
18 posted on 02/04/2010 10:05:26 AM PST by Dewey Revoltnow
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

I remember toy stores and hobby shops selling plastic models of his brother Billy’s customized Ford pick-up. Before too long, they couldn’t give them away. Also another anectodal tidbit, my local .99c store has a huge bin of 0bama lighters by the register and there marked down even cheaper than the Scripto knockoffs.


19 posted on 02/04/2010 10:06:15 AM PST by Impala64ssa
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To: Impala64ssa

How about
“Turn out the Lights.
the Party’s Over.”


20 posted on 02/04/2010 10:10:27 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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