Obama downs the beer in Iowa

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DUBUQUE, Iowa, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Supporters have been chanting "four more beers" when President Obama, on a three-day Iowa swing, talks about what he describes as his favorite beverage.

In fact, beer has been a major feature of the Iowa trip, The Washington Post reported. Obama bought a round at the Iowa State Fair and told his wife, Michelle, during an intimate moment in front of a microphone and a large crowd, that he had eaten a pork chop and beer instead of a fried Twinkie.

No one knows what Obama actually drinks in private moments or at least his staff won't say. But beer loomed large in his first campaign in 2008, dating back to an exploratory trip to Iowa in 2006, and beers at the White House have also gotten their share of publicity, like the one he drank from the White House home brewery with Dakota Meyer, the Marine Corps veteran presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the six-pack from a Chicago microbrewery he gave the prime minister of Ireland.

Both Obama and his likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, have un-average resumes. Both stress points they believe voters will identify with -- Obama's blue-collar in-laws and childhood with a single mother and Romney's marriage to a woman he met in high school and her battle with multiple sclerosis.

But Romney, a Mormon, does not drink. That could give Obama an edge with independents, the Post said, because a recent Scarborough USA survey found independents are more likely than Democrats or Republicans to report they have drunk at least one beer in the past 30 days.

Even Obama's love of small-label beers and the White House brewery, which the president paid for with his own money, may be an advantage. Scarborough found 45 percent of independents had quaffed a microbrew, compared to 25 percent of Democrats and 23 percent of Republicans.