Senate leaders have pushed back the vote on T. Boone Pickens’ natural-gas-subsidy measure until next Tuesday, a Senate aide tells me.

This four-day advanced warning gives the Republicans a chance to consider their election-year strategy and their view on corporate welfare. I wrote earlier this week that the GOP has a “free-market populist opportunity.” Because Obama’s Win-The-Future, National Greatness Liberalism, National Industrial Policy, America Inc. policy platform involves federal support for Big Business, Republicans have an opportunity to claim the populist mantel.