First it was Bain. Then it was releasing income tax returns. Then came the Cayman Islands. The conversation about Mitt Romney has turned in recent weeks and settled into what could be an uncomfortable spot for the former Massachusetts governor. The questions focus on his wealth and how he has managed it.
Mr. Romney, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, was bound to be tested – every front-runner is. Opponents have dug into his record as a politician to determine whether he is conservative enough for the party. They have criticized him for flip-flopping on issues.
But these new talking points on Mr. Romney are something different because they go beyond politics and policy. They strike at Mr. Romney’s everyman-ness, that question every politician ultimately faces about whether he is like “you and me.” And, when you look at the 
numbers – votes and exit polls in Iowa and New Hampshire – they feed into a narrative that seems easy to support.
You can call it the “politics of envy” or class warfare, but there seems to be one clear fact emerging about Mr. Romney: He draws more support from those who sit higher on the income scale.
In Iowa and New Hampshire, the exit polls show a clear trend line. In both states Mr. Romney outperformed his statewide numbers among those making more than $100,000 a year by large margins. In Iowa, he won 25% of the vote statewide but won 36% of the vote from those making over $100,000. In New Hampshire, he won close to 50% of the vote from those making over $100,000, compared with 39% statewide.
But among every other income level, he underperformed and the drop was especially steep among those making less than $50,000 a year.
Read the rest of this week's Politics Counts column on the Wall Street Journal's website.
The map below shows the median household income in the United States in 2010 by county. Only the darkest green counties have median household incomes of more than $55,000.
