dollar.thumbnail.jpgIn this liminal post-election, pre-inaugural purgatory, opportunistic kitsch is aflowing. Joe the Plumber has gotten a book deal. And with all those AP layoffs, you’d think he could have had his pick of ghostwriters instead of going with Thomas Tabback, whose debut book from PearlGate, also Joe’s publishers, is historical fiction…Historical fiction–oh wait, never mind.

Meanwhile, manufacturers large and small are creating cartloads of Obama souvenirs ranging from enameled presidential dollars and not-so-very attractive selections of commemorative plates to several kinds of soap, buttons and heaps of books including  The Obama Menu: Dinners With Barack Obama and Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme.

pipe-edit.thumbnail.jpgAnd, since Joe may be busy working on his oeuvre, if you have holiday plumbing problems, there’s "BARAK President Ultimate Plumbing," which has nothing to do with Obama or Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, but–thanks to the wonder of modern technology– shows up on on Google mail between friends discussing politics because the repiping company, whose president is named Barak, has figured out a way to maximize his business’s visibility.