2012 Election Merchandise

The CafePress Meter - 2012 Edition

Welcome to The Meter page—CafePress' weekly Cultural Barometer® reading of 2012 Election cycle trends based on merchandise sales percentages on CafePress.com.

Results for the week ending: May 12, 2012

• To Date
• Pro vs. Anti Obama
• Weekly T-shirt Sales

• To Date
• Pro vs. Anti Obama
• Weekly T-shirt Sales

• To Date
• Pro vs. Anti Obama
• Weekly T-shirt Sales

Paul Backs Down

With today's announcement that Ron Paul is suspending active campaigning, it looks like the GOP is set to take on Obama with their long-time frontrunner, Mitt Romney.

After months of fighting and refusing to back down, Ron Paul has faced the numbers and decided to step back from the race. While his die-hard supporters will certainly be crushed, do you think it was the right move? Will Romney pick up Paul's supporters in his bid to beat Obama?

Let us know your thoughts on the Presidential race in the comments area below.

On the political merchandising side, we noticed that the trend has been staying steady over the past three weeks, with Obama gaining momentum as Ron Paul slowly dwindled from his incredible early numbers. And why are t-shirt sales important? Well, we find that when buyers spend their money on a political candidate, they're really expressing where their vote is going come election time.

Let's take a look at The Meter graphs for this week:

• Romney - Romney picked up one percentage point in the weekly sales, up to 24%. Do you think Ron Paul's exit will pave the way for a bigger increase next week? And will Romney's overall numbers finally make the leap from 15%?
• Obama - While Obama keeps rising in the all-time sales, we did notice that the Anti-Obama sales picked up steam again this week. Do you think the GOP is feeling the threat of the incumbent candidate?
• Paul - Predictably, Paul dropped a point in both weekly and overall sales. We've seen a steady decline in Paul's sales since the first of the year despite his passionate supporters.