Ralph Rocks the Vote (Poll Shows Young Voters Turning Toward Nader, at the expense of Kerry)

MSNBC/Newsweek ^ | 3/23/04 | Jonathan Darman

[NYC Republican]

Ralph Nader may have been abandoned by some of his celebrity backers, railed against in Democratic Party circles and skewered on late night TV, but the consumer advocate still packs a powerful punch with young voters. According to the latest NEWSWEEK and Newsweek.com Genext poll, the feisty Nader, widely blamed for Al Gore’s defeat in the 2000 election, drew twice the support among voters aged 18-29 as he did in a comparable poll of all registered voters. The groundswell of youth support could mean good news for Nader, and perhaps more significantly, for President George W. Bush.

At face value, Bush’s performance with the Under-30 set is hardly anything to write home about. His support among young voters has remained steady in the past month—38 percent of 18-29 year olds said they would likely vote for him in a hypothetical election, compared with 41 percent of young voters who supported the president a month ago, an insignificant change within the margin of error. But while Bush’s youth numbers still lag behind his performance with voters of all ages (46 percent), the president can perhaps find something to smile about in the Genext numbers of his rival, Sen. John Kerry. While the 47 percent of young voters who say they favor Kerry still gives the Massachusetts senator a nine point lead over the president, Kerry’s support has dropped significantly from the 56 percent who said they would vote for him just one month ago.

[NYC Republican]

Go, Ralph Go!!!

[Always Right]

How many states is Nader gonna be on the ballot?

[sfvgt]

Nader will get about 10% thus insuring that Bush wins just about every state. I know some Greens out here in LA and they will never vote for kerry, plus the ABB momentum is dying down to the point of disinterest. I think alot of demopimps will sit out the election or go with Nader.....

[BushisTheMan]

Remind the gays that Ralph is for gay marriage too.

More votes for Ralph...less for RATs.

[Lion Den Dan]

As Rush says, "Heads full of mush."

[RetiredArmy]

I bet these "lagging" Bush numbers in the 18-29 year olds, DOES NOT INCLUDE THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN OF OUR ARMED FORCES??? I bet cha, I bet cha it doesn't.

[zbigreddogz]

If Bush's people are smart, they are finding millionares in every state to become Nader 'supporters', giving lotsa money to get petitions filled out so his name can be on the ballot.

[liberty03]

Just goes to show you where the intelligence can be found on the political spectrum. Moving more to the Left we find less and less of a capacity for intelligence.

[qam1]

Poll Results and more of the story @

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040323/nytu110_1.html

I would post them but it's too hard to formatt.

But one especially did catch my eye

	3/1	-17/04		3/1	-3/04
	Voters	18-29		All Voters
	Bush Voters	Kerry Voters		Bush Voters	Kerry Voters
Definitely vote for candidate	73	59		82	65
Could change mind	27	40		18	34
Not Sure	-	1		-	1

40 and 34% leaning towards Kerry could change their minds but only 27% to 18% that are leaning towards Bush!!!

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1982) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details.

[NYC Republican]

Good analysis. Thanks

[LongsforReagan]

A Nader/Kucinich ticket would be awesome....for us!

[Dan from Michigan]

That's still not good for Bush though. NES Survey from 2000

Born 79-82 - Bush 49, Gore 35, Nader 16
Born 71-78 - Bush 51, Gore 48, Nader 1

[weegee]

Kerry has support as the "Unknown Democrat". So far he has not given people any justification as to why he should be president although a number of red flags have gone up against his qualifications.

He's a straw candidate. I think he'll do better on election day than Michael Dukakis did but I don't know that this election will be anywhere as close as 2000. The big factor will be in seeing that this race still "appears" to be close. It will only help to motivate the conservative base to go to the polls. With only 50% of voters actually voting, whoever gets more supporters to the polls wins (provided they do it in states to get enough electoral votes). States that are in contention will have stronger "get out the vote - knock and drag" efforts than in Democrat strongholds.

[weegee]

It's good for Republican re-election but such political moves need to be questioned.

Certainly the more Nader, Greens, the Socialist party, the Communist party, the Worker's World party, and the Socialist Worker's party draw Democrat support, the more Democrats will push to far left socialism in policy. Rather than trying to move back to middle to get the moderates, they will continue to pursue the far left wackos. Even without Ralph Nader's Green Party votes in Florida, Albert Gore Junior could have won with the Socialist/Communist vote in Florida.

The Republicans may pick up more votes from moderates as a result or they could move even more to the left, away from conservativism, as the "center" moves more to the left.

At some point we need to be holding Republicans to the party platform and ousting the CINOs and RINOs in the primaries.