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A Bumper Crop for Barack
A Bumper Crop for Barack
By Tom Purcell
Sentiment toward President Obama surely is shifting if bumper stickers have anything to do with it:
How's that hopey, changey thing working out for you?
Bankrupt America? Yes, we can!
I hope I have some change left in four years.
Those are some of the top sellers at CafePress.com, an on-demand printer that allows people to customize and sell their own bumper stickers, T-shirts, mugs and other items. More than 200 million items are available at the site.
The items people are customizing and buying the most offer an interesting barometer into what the public is thinking. What the public is thinking lately doesn't bode well for Obama:
Barack Obama: A new chapter in American history, Chapter 13.
The audacity of hype.
Yes we can-- destroy America!
In the lead-up to the 2008 election, Obama's bumper stickers were mostly positive.
Six months prior to the election, 60 percent of the political bumper stickers sold were Obama stickers (only 28 percent of the sales were for McCain/Palin stickers). Positive Obama stickers outsold anti-Obama stickers at a rate of 2-to-1.
Here's another gauge: During the election, CafePress customers produced twice as many Obama items (3.3 million) as they did McCain/Palin items (1.7 million). Seventy-five percent of the Obama items were positive.
So what kinds of bumper stickers are being produced six months into Obama's presidency? Mostly negative.
"Of the top 100 selling stickers during the past six months, 85 percent have been political in nature," said Marc Cowlin, CafePress director of public relations. "Of those, 65 percent are anti-Obama. The most popular designs are directed at the bailout, financial concerns about spending and proposed health care reform."
It's true that Bush initiated the bailout. But Obama used it to do things for which it was not intended — such as buy a couple of automotive companies. In any event, bailing out people who made bad decisions has infuriated many, as these popular stickers point out:
Honk if I'm paying your mortgage.
The big three couldn't sell me a car, so they stole my taxes instead.
America: Take from the poor and give to the rich.
Many bumper stickers target government spending. Bush ran our debt up from $6 trillion to $11 trillion. Obama is making Bush look like a piker. Obama's spending will run our debt to unsustainable levels — beyond $20 trillion in 10 years. His big-spending ways have not been lost on bumper-sticker producers:
Honk if the word trillion scares you.
Are you better off than you were $4 trillion dollars ago?
Work harder! Obama needs your money!
Obama told us his $787 billion stimulus bill was needed to keep unemployment levels under 8 percent. It isn't working. America is fast on its way to 10 percent.
Where stimulus spending is concerned, these bumper stickers offer more common sense:
Hey, Barack, we're baroke!
If Obama's stimulus was working, I'd be working.
No we can't-- afford any of this.
That brings us to health care. Obama is letting the same Congress that wrote the stimulus bill — the same geniuses who packed that bill full of programs that had nothing to do with stimulating anything — draft a massive bill to "reform" our health care system. I hope to God they embrace bumper-sticker wisdom before they do anything:
You think health care is expensive now? Wait until it's free.
Like visiting the DMV? You'll love government health care.
Government health care: IRS compassion, post-office efficiency.
Obama and Democrats are moving fast to transform America. They continue to spend recklessly. They are making a power grab over our health care and energy industries. They will have to raise taxes significantly to pay for the massive government expansion.
How do many Americans feel about these bold moves? These bumper stickers sum up our feelings well:
Didn't our ancestors leave Europe to get away from this crap?
$11 trillion and climbing -- now that's a lot of change!
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
© 2009 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Sales at (805) 969-2829 or email sales@cagle.com. Visit Tom on the web at www.TomPurcell.com or e-mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.
RESTRICTIONS: 'Tom Purcell's column may not be reprinted in general circulation print media in Pennsylvania's Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, and Westmoreland Counties. It may appear only in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and its sister publications.
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Con Obama and General Motors
By: Daryl Cagle
Slate.com
June 4, 2009 | 
Con Obama and General Motors COLOR
By: Daryl Cagle
Slate.com
June 4, 2009 | 
Con Bending the Health Care Curve
By: Nate Beeler
July 16, 2009 | 
Con Obama Lip Service COLOR
By: Nate Beeler
May 7, 2009 | 
Con Bending the Health Care Curve COLOR
By: Nate Beeler
July 16, 2009 | 
Con Obama Lip Service
By: Nate Beeler
May 7, 2009 | 
Barack Obama
By: Taylor Jones
July 13, 2009 | 
Barack Obama - COLOR
By: Taylor Jones
July 13, 2009 | 
Con Health care leeches COLOR
By: John Cole
July 16, 2009 | 
Con Health care leeches BW
By: John Cole
July 16, 2009 | 
When The Stimulus Is Right
By: John Darkow
July 10, 2009 | 
Con First Hundred Days BW
By: John Cole
April 24, 2009 | 
Con First Hundred Days COLOR
By: John Cole
April 24, 2009 | 
Lib Revamped Health
By: Larry Wright
The Detroit News
July 16, 2009 | 
Lib COLOR Revamped Health
By: Larry Wright
The Detroit News
July 16, 2009 | 
Exploratory Surgery
By: Jeff Parker
Florida Today
June 9, 2009 | 
Exploratory Surgery COLOR
By: Jeff Parker
Florida Today
June 9, 2009 | 
Con Liberals economic expectations
By: Eric Allie
July 14, 2009 | 
Con 2nd stimulus
By: Eric Allie
July 7, 2009 | 
Con 2nd Stimulus COLOR
By: Eric Allie
July 7, 2009 | 
Con Liberals economic expectations COLOR
By: Eric Allie
July 14, 2009 | 
spend
By: Hajo de Reijger
April 20, 2009 | 
spend color
By: Hajo de Reijger
April 20, 2009 | | |
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Tom Purcell, 7/20/2009 [
