White House Gifts

Inside this aptly named store, a block east of the White House, presidential trinkets and tchotchkes abound. One tourist, making a beeline for the display just beyond the entrance, might eye a colorful postcard of President Obama; another, favoring a different set of beliefs, might be enamored with a pair of Mitt Romney cufflinks.

Others, looking back a few more years, might very well ask where the busts of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln are kept. It doesn’t matter. They’re all in luck. On any given day, the shop’s narrow confines will host a throng of disparate tourists who are looking to take a bit of DC home with them.
Admittedly, on the day of my visit, given the shop’s usual clientele, I seemed out of place. What was I, as a local resident, doing here? When I entered the store and found myself browsing alongside out-​of-​towners from the Midwest, backpackers from Europe, or exchange students from Tokyo, I felt plainly awkward and, frankly, a little bit embarrassed for taking interest in the products on the shelves.
Thankfully, I could, at least, find comfort in the fact that I wasn’t shopping for myself… but, for someone else (namely, my cousin, who is a big admirer of the President’s). Knowing my cousin’s political persuasion and eccentric tastes, I combed through the store thoroughly to look past the more common items (mentioned above) to find something a bit different and unique. White House Gifts, in accommodating fashion, did not disappoint.
It offered many potentially suitable choices. However, in making my selection, I looked past some of them (the tempting child-​sized tee shirts with the words, «Future President» emblazoned on them, the eager bobblehead doll of Sarah Palin, even as it swayed in agreement, and, yes, the cheesy drawing of eight smiling Republican presidents in a pool hall who, so gathered, pay homage to the classic velvet painting of the billiard-​playing dogs).

Instead, my eyes were drawn to the «Obama Rama Mix N’ Match» wardrobe set (the kind that features a flat magnetic sheet with an image of President Obama printed on it and that includes cut-​out articles of clothing that can be shifted around as whim and whimsy dictate). I could easily see my cousin (a grown man with a child-​like spirit) having hours of fun dressing the President up in different outfits (from an outlandish red, white, and blue superhero’s costume to swim trunks that Mr. Obama might favor on an afternoon of beachgoing bliss in his native Oahu).
Anyway, that’s what I bought; and, I’m glad this shop carried such a playful item in its inventory. Frankly, upon receiving and opening the gift, which I had sent to him a few days before his birthday, my cousin was thoroughly amused. There’s something about helping the President put his pants on that places both politician and supporter on equal footing; and, at a time, now, when the American people want more political transparency, what a special feeling that is.