Sales soaring on Obama 2008 gear

Barack Obama has been the talk on the talk shows. His possible entry into the 2008 presidential race has shaken up the Democratic field, according to a front page article in yesterday's New York Times. He's planning on visiting New Hampshire this weekend.

But the true test? T-shirt sales.

According to the online marketplace cafepress.com, sales of Obama 2008 merchandise has soared in the past month. In September, the senator from Illinois accounted for 28.4 percent of 2008 presidential buttons, stickers, posters, and t-shirts sold through the website (He trailed Al Gore, who had 30.7 percent, and he was ahead of Hillary Clinton, who had 13.6 percent).

By October, Obama was accounting for 77.3 percent of the sales (followed by Gore, with 6 percent, and Clinton, with 5.9 percent).

"We’ve never seen a candidate capture this large a share of presidential campaign gear in a given month," the website said with the release of its figures. "Can this level of Obamamania be maintained? You know what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to the sun."

John Kerry did not have enough sales to register in either month's compilation and was relegated to the "other" category.

The site doesn't appear to have a similar compilation for the Republican field, but there's plenty of Mitt Romney gear available.