Cain-themed homemade kitsch sales surge online

Chris Moody
·Political Reporter

Forget the polls: Can you guess which Republican presidential candidate is winning the Internet kitsch primary?

It turns out that online shoppers are buying more homemade T-shirts, bumper stickers, and even skimpy thongs bearing the image of businessman Herman Cain than any other candidate on CafePress.com, a website that allows users to make their own goods and sell them on the Web.

"In October, CafePress has seen Cain's popularity surge with 'Cain' tagged merchandise accounting for 58 percent of the merchandise sales total for potential GOP nominees," said Marc Cowlin, director of marketing for the company.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a candidate with a knack for raising millions of dollars online alone, is in second place with 28 percent.

Items tagged as "Mitt Romney," however, slumped to just six percent of sales this month, down from 15 percent in June. But that's not to say that all Romney-tagged goods aren't selling like hotcakes.

"A 'Romney' tagged item that has been doing extremely well are 'Romney Flip Flops,'" Cowlin added.

You can see the full October sales rundown after the jump:

- Cain, 58%
- Paul, 27%
- Romney, 6%
- Gingrich, 4%
- Bachman, 3%
- Perry, 2%
- Santorum, 0%
- Huntsman, 0%
- Johnson, 0%

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