Palin doll spells trouble for Obama

Posted by Theo Blackwell at Wed, 10/09/2008 - 11:17am in

When high politics reaches popular culture, political pundits should sit up and take notice.

In what could be considered another worrying sign of the Palin bangwagon rolling on, shifting the spotlight from Obama - a Palin doll has found its way onto the market.

There are three versions of the action figure - an executive, a schoolgirl and (of course) a .45 calibre gun-toting superhero. The executive action figure sells for $28 (£14) and the school girl and the superhero retail at $30 (£15).

Herobuilders.com creator Emil Vicale said of his opportunistic product: "The reaction has just been insane. It's probably going to end up being one of our biggest sellers, and we've sold runs of 25,000 units at a time. So I think it's going to go past that."

With just 8 weeks to go until election day, the popular appeal of Palin, especially among women, spells trouble for the Obama campaign.

One of the big question marks, highlighted by Hillary Clinton's advisers during the primary race, was the issue of longevity. 

Obama's simple messaging around "change" certainly motivated the Democrat activist base in the primaries and caucus election he won, but would people still be receptive to the same message from the same candidate eight months later.  To be sure Obama still easily fills stadiums, but perhaps the issue facing the team is how to deal with a newer and more unconventional exponent of that message in the figure of Sarah Palin.

Tagged with: Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin doll