This issue is extremely important. I know because I am another vendor of T-shirts and other stuff for Obama. Here is my take:
1. Indulge me, First I have to take the obligatory slap at Hillary: There are at least five or six vendors who sell t-shirts, posters, and campaign buttons at Obama events. The fact is that, regardless of whether he wins or loses he is a cultural icon like Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. People practically snap your hand off when you hold out one of these t-shirts. Nobody would walk around with a picture of Hillary Clinton on their chest, although it might be appropriate to put her portrait on an old canvas bag.
2. Indulge me again. Official campaign t-shirts and buttons are what I would call nouveau Soviet. A style sense that is banal coupled with a choice which is limited married to a product quality which might last until you get down the block.
3. Me, and other vendors generally make our own stuff. The Obama campaign has a schizophrenic relationship with us. On the one hand they encourage “insurgent” action where people produce their own yard signs, t-shirts, and buttons using freely available images. This is great for visibility, especially in a state like Pennsylvania where Hillary is doing yard signs and has the support of the Democratic machine, which will gladly do what it can to suppress Obama visuals. On the other hand if one does this on a reasonably large scale campaign officials get offended. So in other words, get lucky, but don’t get TOO lucky, because somebody made a deal with Tigereye.
4. One gent, who is a traveling organizer with the campaign came out and asked me to leave as I was selling T-shirts which were better looking and a fraction of the cost of the Tigereye offering in front of the campaign HQ. He said if I didn’t move he would have me moved.
Well. This gent, who is an outsider to PA after all, comes into my city and tells me, a licensed peddler, that he is going to move me? Needless to say the conversation didn’t go well or last long, and he was soon retreating, his tail between his legs, into his campaign inner sanctum while mewling could I PLEASE stop selling these t-shirts?
5. Among vendors there is also a holiness issue. It’s sort of like who is the purest neo-con or communist, or who porked the entire heavy metal band first. I actually pump a lot of money back into the Obama campaign–the name of the game is visibility–but generally I don’t let people know about it. Its more fun to see them shocked that I would be making money hand over fist off their candidate while simultaneously poking a stick in the eye of hypocritical losers like Tigereye. When customers ask if the product is union made, I point out that really making buttons is a cottage industry and is nothing that is ever going to move nations. When they want to know if I spend it on the Obama campaign, I note that if I did that how could I keep up payments on my yacht?
As for the McCain connection I too have been approached by Republicans. However, they’re strictly cash up front customers if you know what I mean because I don’t care much for those guys.
How is this for a Republican concept: The John Ma Cane. It is a cane with a toilet handle. I seriously considered making and selling these, but realized it would be hard to sell to Republicans and Dems wouldn’t get the joke.
A.U. Vendor
