Posted on 02/11/2010 4:40:32 PM PST by euram
Sarah Palin seized the national spotlight last weekend at a tea party, but before long she could have Republicans thinking about wine and beer.
That's as in the "wine track" and the "beer track" -- a shorthand for the class divisions that could shape the 2012 GOP presidential race if the former Alaska governor runs. For years, the wine/beer divide has influenced Democratic, not Republican, presidential primaries. Since 1968, Democratic nomination contests have frequently pitted a candidate who draws support primarily from college-educated wine-track voters (think Gary Hart and Barack Obama) against one who relies mostly on less-educated, economically populist beer-track supporters (such as Walter Mondale and Hillary Rodham Clinton).
Republican races typically haven't followed that pattern. John McCain, the 2008 nominee, drew exactly as much support from GOP voters with college degrees as he did from those with less education, according to a cumulative analysis of exit polls from all the Republican primaries. But Palin, through cultural imagery as much as policy proposals, is positioning herself as the tribune of beer-track Republicans, who tend to be populist, socially conservative, and profoundly antagonistic toward Washington. If she runs, she could widen class fissures in the GOP coalition -- especially if the race comes down to her and Mitt Romney, the putative front-runner, whose support tilted toward college-educated wine-track Republicans in his 2008 presidential campaign. "In a Romney-Palin race, I think you would start to see those splits," says Alex Lundry, vice president of TargetPoint, a GOP strategy firm that worked for Romney last time.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
Never -- in my memory, under any administration -- has race and class been a wound dug open more rudely.
Obama, you're a scumbag.
Polling suggests that this article is dead on.
Quoting a Mitt sider. Enough said.
Romney just hopes to be on her level by the time of the primaries.
How many bottles did it take to hack this out?
I always suspect that the source of the “friendly fire” toward Palin is Romney and the Romneyacs.
And that just irritates me.
The guys I’m considering for my support, guys like DeMint for example, as far as I can tell have never bothered to attack her because they are serious people, they see her as an ally more than a rival, and they are engaged in the fight of the century right now and don’t have time for intramural infighting.
For that matter, they see the “beer-swilling” tea-partyers as allies, as soul-brothers, and not something to be embarrassed of.
I’m not sure who I’m going to support in 2012. But I do know it will be someone who is actively in the fight now. It won’t be someone who is waiting for some kind of coronation, and it won’t be someone who is spending his ammo going after conservatives.
Nice legs........
on that crab.
Is Palin-Romney possible? Combine the Beer and Wine wings? It is the Beer’s caucus’ “turn” after all
I know a lot of Republicans who like BOTH wine and beer, so why would this be some sort of ‘divide’? ;o)
Pretty much ALL polls show that Palin rocks with the under $75k per year crowd and Romney with the over. Education level correlates highly with who you are for here.
We all know that college students don’t drink beer.
I just saw her in person last weekend and she is very fetching..which I love.
but some folks don’t like that much here...mostly the felines.
oh well...this forum is not a popularity contest thank God.
PS: some here are probably wondering when I will stop gloating over having gone to the TP banquet....I’m consedering it....maybe by mid summer
Here's to Sarah!
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