A Summer Barbeque? Better with Obama than McCain.

Americans may not have yet decided who to send to the White House in the November elections, but on the question of who they would like to have in their backyard on a summer day to share chit-chat, beer and grilled cutlets they don’t have any doubts: Barack Obama.

For 52% of Americans, the Senator from Illinois-–young, charismatic, and elegant-–would be the ideal guest for that most traditional of summer activities, the Barbeque, which reaches its height of popularity on July 4th, a national holiday in the United States.

This was the response to an Associated Press/Yahoo News polls released Wednesday, a response that signals a new fall in the popularity of John McCain, Obama’s rival even in this area of ‘preferred guest’: 45% of the 1759 Americans surveyed in the poll chose him as their grill companion. Women, above all, were most likely to show a weakness for the African-American Senator, who beats McCain by 11 points among females, but the young and also minorities would willingly share hamburgers and coleslaw-–the traditional cabbage salad-–with Obama. McCain’s company, on the other hand, would have a higher percentage of whites and older voters. To really explain the difference one must look at political affiliation: 75% of Democrats would send their invitation to Barack, and equally as many Republicans would want to be with John. A Barbeque with the Illinois Senator would certainly have the calm and cheery air of a Sunday reunion with friends and family, while grilling in the McCain style “would look more like a really fun retirement party,” predicts Wesley Welbourne, a Washington engineer and one of the respondents.