Suddenly, the American media are touting Barack Obama as the beer guy. There was the famous Iowa State Fair Bud Tent beer bash, where the president opened his wallet and paid for ten people to have a beer on him, while costing the owner of the tent 25 G's in lost business, as the Secret Service closed it down for security sweeps.

Then there have been reports of the campaign bus carrying a stash of "secret" White House honey beer, whose recipe is being touted as a state secret bigger than the details of the Stuxnet virus intelligence operation, which one could read about in the New York Times.

Boy, that Obama sure is a regular guy.

If you think this is a manipulative propaganda campaign, you're correct. But it is product positioning based on market research.  You see, it turns out that independent voters are bigger beer drinkers than either Republicans or Democrats.  From taxpayer-funded NPR:

"According to a survey conducted by Scarborough Research, 47 percent of independent voters drank a beer in the past 30 days, while just 40 percent of Republicans and 39 percent of Democrats did."

The Washington Post informs us:

Discerning Obama's true level of passion for beer is difficult, given that all his recent comments and purchases occurred at orchestrated campaign events. Advisers won't comment on what the president drinks in the privacy of his own home. But they do note that the public references are not new. As far back as 2006, when Obama took one of his first exploratory trips to Iowa, he drank beer for the cameras. He visited countless pubs over the subsequent two years of campaigning. He even presented the prime minister of Ireland with a six-pack of Chicago microbrew.

From now on, both parties' campaigns are reaching out to the "low information voters" -- the ones who don't pay much attention, on whom the balance of power apparently rests. Sadly enough,l the m ultiple images of Obama swiulling down beer in various pubs may be enough to convince some of them Barack is just a regular guy. One thing is certain: Mitt Romney won't be downing any brewskis, though his running mate Paul Ryan, from the beer-and-cheese state of Wisconsin could probably drink Obama under the table.

Hat tip: Velma Montoya