Identity politics, retail style

Neiman Marcus shoppers of the world unite! All you have to lose is the diamond-encrusted tennis bracelets that bind your wrists!!

Neiman-Marcus shoppers favor Obama and Wal-Mart shoppers like McCain.

You are where you shop, politically speaking.

It's that simple, says pollster John Zogby, who took a poll of shoppers in June that shows John McCain, the Republican, with 14-point advantages among shoppers at Wal-Mart and Sears and a 6-point edge with Kohl's shoppers.

Barack Obama, the Democrat, has a 24-point lead over at Target and is up 16 points at Macy's and 12 points at Neiman Marcus.

Polling the shopping electorate in 2004 produced similar results, but there are differences this election cycle, which don't portend well for McCain.

George W. Bush, for instance, held a much bigger lead over John Kerry at Wal-Mart (25 percent) than McCain now holds over Obama.

And at so-called "centrist stores" like Target and Marshall's, the shoppers like Obama considerably more than they did Kerry back in '04.

So it goes.