Florida primary pits Tea Party vs cocktail party per Politico

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Thank heaven for Politico. It's so nice to be pigeon-holed.

1/26/12, "Florida primary pits tea party vs. cocktail party," Politico, Jonathan Martin, Tampa, Fla.

"As the Republican race moves to a state defined by the extremes in recession-era America — where the underwater and unemployed live just a few miles from the 1 percent — a sharp class divide is emerging between the two top contenders.

Mitt Romney’s crowds look like something out of the president’s suite at a University of Florida football game — prosperous, trim, Tattersall-clad, and supportive but not rowdy.

Newt Gingrich supporters, with their spray-painted signs, American flag tees, flip-flops and fanny packs, more closely resemble a group that would fit in nicely playing a few bucks at the dog track.

Exit poll data and unmistakable anecdotal evidence from their events reflects an unfolding campaign in which Romney does best with voters that are a lot like him — wealthy, well-educated and lukewarm about the populist tea party movement. Gingrich is appealing most to Republicans who earn under six figures, make up the core of the middle-class and are worried about their economic prospects

• and furious at the establishment.

It’s the Tea Party and the cocktail party.

Tampa attorney Paul Phillips illustrates the gap. He came to Romney’s Tuesday morning State of the Union pre-buttal dressed for a business meeting, sporting a blue pinstriped suit and a smart polka-dot tie.

“I’m an educated elitist,” Phillips said before Romney spoke in a warehouse that has closed during the economic recession. “I mean seriously, I don’t view the tea party with a very good light. Most of them quote the Constitution and don’t understand it. It’s pretty scary, actually.”...

“They were the only two intellectual, credible people in the race. It was obvious that they would be the final two,” Phillips said. “However, given Newt’s past, I just don’t see him as someone I want in the presidency for four years.”

In contrast, Steve Bonnell, an HR manager from Lithia, Fla., said he came with a Gadsden flag and spray-painted "USA Hearts Newt" sign to the Tampa debate Monday because he was "trying to save America."

“He’s able to articulate what the American people are thinking,” Bonnell explained about why he likes Gingrich.

And what’s that?

“We want our country back,” he said. “We want to abide by the Constitution. We’re nearly bankrupt in every sense of the word.”

Republicans prefer to ignore class differences within their auto mechanic and hedge funder coalition, but the establishment vs. insurgency battle between Romney and Gingrich increasingly resembles the beer track-wine track epic battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama."...via Sharon Calvert

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