Beer and votes

After the news that President Obama is home brewing at the White House, the US magazine National Journal has published a poll which suggests that the beer Americans drink is an indicator of how they'll vote in next month's presidential election.

The poll looks at beer drinkers' position on the left-right spectrum and also how likely they are to turn out to vote. Some of the results are quite surprising. Sam Adams, brewed in the Democratic stronghold of Boston, turns out to be the favourite beer of right-of-centre Republicans most likely to turn out to vote rather than the trendy liberals you might expect to be drinking "craft beer".

Turnout is also normally a reflection of class with better-off Americans more likely to vote than poor ones. On that basis, Sierra Nevada beer from California is drunk by well-off liberals, Miller and Michelob by slightly less well-off Democrats, Heineken and Corona by left-wing blue collar workers and Busch Light by right-wing ones, neither of whom are likely to vote in November. Swing voters are split between Budweiser, Fosters and Guinness.

Next week, how the wine and spirits vote breaks down...