Obama Inauguration street vendor ephemera, Venice Beach, CA, 01-18-09.

Link to a few snapshots in my Flickr stream. At top, "ObaMarley" stickers. Best Rastafarian street vendor Photoshop job ever. I bought a few, they were a buck each. And below: in the great procession of American history, Obama will forever stand between George W. Bush and whomever ultimately succeeds his presidency. But on the boardwalk incense stands, he's right between "Butt Naked" and "Kush." The other Obamaphemera item I saw but forgot to snap: a t-shirt with our new prez, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Above their likenesses, in tiny all caps fonts, a la Dr. Bronner soap -- the inspirational text began: "YES WE CAN HAS A DREAM."

• [Talia]

  Lolbama shirt? DO WANT!

  Seriously. Really, really really want.

• [neenog]

  There’s now even the Obama fridge

  http://www.motifo.com/2009/01/barack-obama-fridge/

• [Avarice]

  I had something meaningful to say, yet sadly all I can really do is shake my head.

• [rasz]

  and more of the same cult of a leader crap …

• [Takuan]

  ahh yass, eat yer hearts out, dying bushie swine.

• [Cpt. Tim]

  don’t forget the more corporate approaches as well. I saw a pepsi ad that said yes we can, with their obamaesque logo.

• [devophill]

  “YES WE CAN HAS A DREAM.”

  Pics or it did not fucking happen.

  Seriously, go back and get pics. Plz.

• [a_user]

  Love the attention to detail in the rastabama.

• [gabrielm]

  @Cpt Tim,
  Yeah I just have seen the Pepsi logo around, but didn’t make the connection until yesterday:

  on-the-bandwagon “hope” logo

• [gabrielm]

  “I just have seen”????
  stupid fat fingers

• [rexy]

  Cool i want one of those stickers!

• [a_user]

  the obamawagon anyone?

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Obamaphemera

  Are you trying to give us a neologasm?

• [Anonymous]

  Bob Marley? Seriously?

  This ‘liberal’ is for the continued prohibition of hemp and other drugs. Your freedoms will continue to be taken by the government. No change in that area.

  Sir George.

• [robert ivan]

  I saw a couple of “Run DC” shirts in atlantic city this weekend. http://rundc08.com/SHOP.html

  I thought it was awesome, then ridiculous, now back to awesome.

• [Rindan]

  I like Obama. If his campaign and the way he his transition team are an indication of how he is going act as president, I will sleep easy, especially after the horror show of incompetence and mismanagement that was Bush. To see the president of the US look like such a beat up loser is sad. His final process conference was pathetic. You could tell that even he left know that the average American sentiment (Republican and Democrat alike}) is “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.” I really couldn’t be any happier. The thought that that even more incompetent dolt, Sarah Palin, was almost next in line to be president makes me sick. I am pretty sure I couldn’t travel over seas if Palin was my president… either that, or I would leave and never come back.

  All of that said, I tend to agree that the cult of personality developing around Obama is a little unsettling. Nothing good ever comes from a cult of personality.

  Obama is a man and nothing more. He isn’t the smarts or most talented man in the US by a long shot. He is just one out of many whose stars lined up and give him a shot at the White House. People need to remember that. Obama isn’t the only leader for this time, he is just a leader. Someone else could do the job. In all likelihood there are more than a handful of other people in the 300 million + population of the US that could do the job better.

  I’m not saying you can’t be happy that it is Obama and not the other options that we were presented (Jesus, was Palin really almost the VP? I weep). I am just saying don’t fall into the delusion in believe that he is the only guy who is capable of it. Further, if he fails it doesn’t mean that everyone would have failed and so his failure is excusable.

  The US is nowhere near this point, but I look at Venezuela and weep for them. When you are trying to change your constitution to let one leader rule without checks of balances for decades, you have failed and fallen under the delusion that there is only one capable leader. It also means you are probably blind to incompetence when it arises.

  All of that said, I am happy Obama won. Every indication he has given is that he is competent, though I suppose the real test will be when the rubber meets the road and he has to deal with congress.

• [EH]

  yeah, i’m gonna have to see pics before i believe there’s lolbamas.

• [tikal2k]

  CAN I HAS A DREAM?

• [Raines Cohen]

  The Pepsi ads are all over DC, especially Metro stations, especially Union Station.