1.2 million products and almost 18 million votes later, the Democratic party has its Presidential candidate.

Hillary Clinton has come under some fire for not dropping out before this point; some CafePress Shopkeepers have gone so far as to create merchandise around it, though speculation is that Hillary will lend her support to Obama on Saturday. Then again, speculation was that Hillary would concede on Tuesday…

What we do know: election sales exploded Wednesday once the delegate count was surpassed and Obama was… well, officially named the presumptive Democratic nominee… (say that 3 times fast). We also noted that Clinton/Obama merchandise seems to be on an upswing.

Judging from the merchandise, Clinton is the most popular choice for a running mate for Obama. Then again, she hasn’t yet officially conceded the race and it’s only been a few days since he surpassed the delegate count, so we’ll know more about the trends in the coming weeks.

One thing is for certain: this election has spawned some of the most creative political gear we’ve ever seen. The Obama designs in particular tend to run the gamut – from traditional red, white and blue to much less traditional, hip and funny obama gear.

The 2004 election saw Howard Dean as the standout candidate using the internet to create a groundswell (and we have the retro T’s to prove it); this election, everyone went online and utilized the internet to mobilize fans, provide interactive experiences and otherwise engage voters.

Web 2.0 has become more of a factor in this election; Internet users are more accustomed to providing their own thoughts and content to the public discourse online, and nowhere is that more evident than in the CafePress catalogue. Whereas the 2004 election saw more singular anti-Bush messaging and the rise of some destination sites (i.e. JibJab) with fantastic content that spoke to the people, this election has seen a trend towards people voicing their own individual opinions – through blogs, online commentary and – of course – through the almighty t-shirt.

This election has, more than ever, brought the t-shirt to the forefront as a sort of microblog. Anecdotally, I myself live right next door to Berkeley – the arguable genesis of bumper sticker activism. In 2004, it was fairly common to see anti-bush stickers on cars out and about in the neighborhood; what wasn’t as common was to see specific candidate support worn loud and proud in such quantities, with such variety, and of such an individualized nature.

That being said, we’re really looking forward to the General Election and all the design creativity that will come along with it.

If you have some pix of yourself in gear you created or just want to share your contribution to the public discourse via merchandise, feel free to email, upload to flickr with the “cafepresident” tag (please, avoid tag SPAM – it’s bad form) or just comment here.