When it comes to 7-Eleven and its coffee drinkers, the choice for president is clear: Barack Obama.

For the fourth straight presidential election, convenience store chain 7-Eleven has allowed customers buying coffee to select a cup based on their preferred candidate — blue for Obama, red for Mitt Romney, or a generic cup for undecideds or unpolitical coffee drinkers. Currently, Obama leads with 60% of the “votes.”

Obama has been in the lead since the first day of the promotion, Sept. 6, where he got 57.2% of the cups.

Although the company freely admits their poll is unscientific, it has correctly predicted the winners of the previous three elections. Six million cups were purchased in each of the previous 7-elections.

Besides being a pretty good bellwether, the promotion is good for 7-Eleven’s bottom line. In 2004, it led to a 6.5% increase in hot beverage sales per store per day.

— Benjamin Nanamaker, InvestorPolitics Editor

The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.

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