Posted on 10/20/2012 2:57:03 PM PDT by neverdem
The cheering midst of a rally featuring President Barack Obama and a largely college-age crowd of 15,000 on the Oval at Ohio State University would not seem a likely place to encounter those not in the president’s corner.
Yet, the first five students approached at random by a Dispatch reporter on Oct. 9 turned out to support Republican Mitt Romney and his aspirations of replacing Obama in the White House.
The must-vote adoration and enthusiasm for Obama isn’t what it once was among 18- to 29-year-old Millennials in central Ohio, a must-win area in a must-win state for presidential hopefuls.
This is not 2008, when two-thirds of the youth vote broke big for Democrat Obama and his message of change amid the accompanying offer of making history by electing the first black president.
This is 2012, with Obama running on a recession-riddled record. Job prospects are iffy for even educated young Ohioans. Some fear their generation is in danger of failing to match or better their parents’ now-dinged lifestyles.
Husband and wife William, 26, and Katherine Frost, 20, OSU students from Grove City, had high hopes for Obama but now are Romney voters. “Obama didn’t fulfill his promises,” she said. “I’m ready for a fresh change,” he said.
Yet to many young adults who tend to trend more liberal than their parents on social issues such as reproductive and gay rights, Obama remains the only option when matched against the conservative Romney.
“How does Romney have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do with my body?” asked Tabitha Johnsen, a 21-year-old Columbus native attending Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware. She’s already voted for Obama.
Millennials, an increasingly diverse and growing group representing 16 percent of Ohio’s population, are coveted by both Obama and Romney, with both making college campuses a frequent stop.
And the biggest of them all, Ohio State and its 56,387 main-campus students, rests in the heart of Franklin County, which cast 50 percent of the presidential vote in a 20-county swath of central Ohio four years ago. Obama chose OSU, in fact, to kick off his re-election campaign at a May 5 rally.
“Ohio is the center of the political universe, and Columbus is the center of that,” said Mayor Michael B. Coleman, a Democrat who exhorted OSU students at the Obama rally to “have his back.”
Franklin County typically is vital turf in presidential elections, with successful Democrats such as Obama relying on six-figure wins to overcome the GOP votes cast by the reliably Republican counties dominating central Ohio.
But, courting and turning out the votes of youth, who are less reliable in going to the polls than older voters are, is proving more difficult this time around — a trend that could work against Obama’s re-election chances.
National polls suggest Obama still enjoys a near 20 percentage-point advantage over Romney among young adults, but their enthusiasm has waned, leaving them less likely to vote than in 2008.
Polling late last month by the Pew Research Center found young voters, who have cast a majority of their votes for Democrats in the past three presidential elections, are significantly less engaged than in 2008.
Sixty-three percent of young registered voters plan to cast ballots this year, compared with 72 percent four years ago. And 61 percent call themselves “highly engaged” this year, down from 75 p ercent in 2008.
Herb Asher, a professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State, said youthful excitement over Obama has been tempered by the “real world and reality” of governing during tough times.
“And there’s nothing in particular about Romney’s candidacy that would have unique or special appeal to young people. Neither of the candidates today are considered to be rock stars by young people,” Asher said.
Asher expects Obama to be a favorite again with Millennials in central Ohio but adds a footnote: “The real question is not so much the level or loyalty of support but turnout. ... The youth vote is an integral part of his strategy and extremely important here.”
Some students, who face an average college debt approaching $30,000 and an unemployment rate of 11.8 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds, are standing firm with Obama.
Paul Filippelli, 22, an Ohio State senior from Pickerington, said: “Obama stands for a lot of issues important to students — education funding and making college affordable for all students. Romney only stands for making sure the wealthy get their tax cuts.”
At Denison University in Granville, Sharea Elliott, 19, a freshman from Havre de Grace, Md., who will be casting an Ohio ballot, finds Romney “shady and lacking good intentions.”
“President Obama’s for the people and for women. I want a president who will make decisions that benefit me, and that’s not Romney,” she said.
Still others are continuing to calculate how to cast their first-ever presidential votes.
Rachel Dininger, 19, an Ohio State freshman from Arlington, Texas, is registered to vote in Ohio. “I’m not a fan of Romney’s emphasis on big business, but I’m uncertain about Obama’s economic plan. My generation is going to have to pay off his (Obama) debt. I could go either way.”
Cameron Phelps, 19, an OSU sophomore from Marion, still is making his call, as well. “I’m not really supporting anybody, but I’m leaning toward Romney after the first debate. I’m uncertain how Romney fixes everything, but Obama’s track record is not good.”
Paul Conway, president of Generation Opportunity, an Arlington, Va., pro-business nonprofit seeking to engage noncollege Millennials on economic issues, said, “They don’t decide on a party like their parents or grandparents.
“They’re much more interested in the details and solutions. They’re interested in making a difference,” said Conway, former chief of staff at the Department of Labor under Secretary Elaine Chao.
“This election definitely will be decided by Millennials. If the candidates don’t talk straight to them, they’re leaving a lot of votes on the floor. They are intensely concerned by the prospect they won’t have the same purchase on the American dream as prior generations.”
Kudos to you and your wife for raising your daughters so well. Being far from home, and immersed in the liberal university culture, and their good grounding in common sense is still holding. Outstanding.
Wow. That yahoo poll with 300,000 responses has it 53 r 47 d, pretty accurate if ask me.
That's an interesting take away!
You're absolutely right, LS; but I think that in some respects, it's even worse than that for Obaama.
Have you noticed that almost every time Teh One holds a rally, it is concurrent with a concert by one pop star or rocker or another?
Source: obviously you can't trust Faux News or anything owned by the Koch brothers, right?
Cheers!
Wouldn’t “millennials” be 12 years old now?
Reality sucks, son.
Perhaps she's studying Eskimo women in mythology for her major? and perhaps the "right" to "do things with her body" is her job prospect?
Obama will give her that opportunity -- maybe a life as a third runger in the Saudi sheik's harem?
red, ben and I are at the end of that demographic range and none of us could contemplate voting for a person with 0 experience 4 years ago. Obama still has got no experience except in ruining things.
I can sympathise with morons (sorry, that's the only nice word I can call them) who were charmed 4 years ago and only saw a black (?) guy who said "change" "hope" and then voted for him
but only a clinically brain-dead person would not see what Obama has wreaked.
Perhaps we are so caught up these days in singing and clapping and enthusiasm instead of the core message.
And yes, the young are disproportionately impressed by the show, and have been forever impressed this way, but this is now exacerbated by bad parenting and society. Gamecock has done well to raise children who can resist this -- it is up to other parents to do the same.
>>>Wouldn’t “millennials” be 12 years old now?>>>
Exactly! Who dreams up these phrases?
“How does Romney have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do with my body?” asked Tabitha Johnsen
But she supports Obamacare which allows the government to decided everything about her medical care. I seriously want to throttle idiots like this. So blind....
I believe the “milllenials” are anyone who turned 17 and/or graduated high school after the year 2000, not those born after 2000.
“How does Romney have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do with my body?” asked Tabitha Johnsen,
_________________________________________
How can Obama or his wife have the right to tell you what to eat, how much you will be allowed to keep of any earnings, whether there will be any business allowed to exist that would hire you, how warm or cool you can be, whether or not you can afford electricity or how much you can drive or in what?
Romney is only telling you that you pay for your own choices, not what the choices will be. You have no right to mandate slavery of someone else to support your choices.
Under Romney, your state will decide its own laws and you can participate or not and if it isn’t to your liking, you can move.
I hope her vote is overwhelmed by her smarter peers.
Ok, Paul. Your a senior and presumably graduate in May. Shouldn't your biggest concern be getting FT work in the field you studied in? At this pont you better be happy flipping burgers, stocking shelves, etc.
Most sources consider the Millennial Generation to include people born in 1982 or after—that is to say, anyone who was still a child on Jan. 1, 2000. They are also referred to as Generation Y (i.e. the generation that followed after Generation X, which in turn followed after the Baby Boomers). There’s an even newer generation now that are still kids. They are often referred to as Generation Z or the Internet Generation.
These newer names may not be perfect, but at least they are less subjective than “The Lost Generation” and “The Greatest Generation” (WWI & WWII respectively).
In the end, X, Y, Z, names make more sense than the arbitrary definition of the “Millennials”
They’re four years older.
He missed a golden opportunity to say "not optimal".
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