As we wade through the aftermath of Barack Obama’s historic victory in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, take a look at this still-shot taken from Terapeak’s election index today:

Tells a bit of the story, doesn’t it?

Isn’t it funny how eBay sales mirror real current events?

Re-examining Terapeak’s 2008 election index, released last July, it appears the McCain campaign has come a long way toward bridging the eBay sales gap. Although Obama still holds a comfortable lead in all categories, the oft-proclaimed maverick has pulled within 2.5 “points” of Obama — that is, Obama’s total items sold over the past month are just two and a half times those of McCain.

Now, if two and a half sounds like a lot, consider this: just two months ago, we were reporting Obama outselling McCain by twenty-one times.

You’ve got to wonder if “McCain” is showing up as a keyword on many of these Sarah Palin items…

CNN’s first July poll shows Obama up by six percent, but Terapeak’s new McCain-Obama index tells a whole other story. Not only does the index track and compare candidate-related sales and trends, its embeddable widget companion can be easily added to anyone’s blog to share near-real-time data instantly. And, it’s so interactive (and fun and colorful), even John King would be proud!

As the candidates scavenge America for votes this summer, each creates a new market for button-makers and book dealers — but that doesn’t mean the profits are balanced, or even close at all. At the time of writing, McCain-related items had sold 513 times in the last 30 days, for an average price of $8.66; Obama-related sells totaled 10,808, at an average of $19.69 apiece. So who’s controlling the market? Well, for one, the folks making those “Change” tee-shirts.

Put that one up on your big board, Johnny!

Stay ahead yourself in the race to gain from the millions these two spend every day: visit Terapeak now to view the entire index, and click the “i” in the top-right-hand corner to grab your own embeddable widget.