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Posted on 11/15/2011 1:31:54 PM PST by SeekAndFind
New poll numbers show that President Obama has suffered massive erosion in enthusiasm among voters under 30, dropping from 81 percent in November 2008 to 48 percent this month. Young voters, who were crucial to Obama’s election and are even more crucial to his re-election, have unemployment rates sharply higher than the national average.
Obama rode into the White House in 2008 on a wave of hopeful young voters under 30. Three years later, though, that hope has waned and Obama must figure out how to again galvanize the youth vote if he expects to win re-election in 2012.
The major disillusionment for voters under 30 regarding Obama’s presidency has been the dismal economy. Currently voters between the ages of 20 and 24 are dealing with approximately a 14 percent unemployment rate, about five percentage points higher than the national average. Many students graduating today will graduate with more debt and less job opportunities.
Therefore, the same group that came out in ardent support for Obama is now being hit the hardest by the economy.
In contrast, under President Bush in August of 2007, the unemployment number in that same age range was 8.4 percent.
The Pew Research Center found in a survey released this month that just 48 percent of young voters - those 18 to 29 years old - say Obama makes them feel hopeful. In Nov. 2008 that number was at 81 percent.
According to The New York Times, young people are still more inclined to vote for Obama over any of the GOP candidates. However, they are less inclined to “jump back into the trenches” and be a full force for the Obama campaign like they were in 2008.
In contrast, Obama’s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, wrote in his book “The Audacity to Win,” that 95 percent of the 2008 campaign’s employees were under thirty.
Yet Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, seems unfazed by these statistics. He told the New York Times that there had been eight million voters aged 18-21 who had registered to vote since the last election and that most of them were Democrats.
“Their brothers and sisters started it, and they are going to finish it,” Mr. Messina said Monday. “They are storming into our office. Our volunteer numbers are up from where we thought they would be.”
Alyssa Farah, Communications Director for the College Republican National Committee, says it is no wonder that young voters are less engaged with Obama now because they are the ones most hurt by his “disastrous economic policies.”
“The hope and change [the youth was] promised didn’t pan out. Most young people can tell you stories of friends they have who graduated college with bachelors degrees they poured tens of thousands of dollars into, only to be forced to move back in with their parents and take jobs well below the paygrade they expected with a degree,” Farah told The Christian Post.
However, the lack of enthusiasm for Obama does not mean the youth will vote for the GOP candidate. In fact, the youth may be more inclined to simply not vote at all as they appear to have grown more cynical about the value of their vote. According to The Boston Globe, 73 percent of young voters thought that voting gave them a voice in the government in 2008. Now, only 63 percent feel their vote is being heard.
Although, that does not mean the GOP is not trying to capitalize on this reduction in enthusiasm.
“Young people must act and that means showing up at the polls. Many on the Right and Left underestimate young people. But we are feeling the pain of this administration’s policies and with the right education on the key issues going into 2012, young people will vote Right,” Farah said.
However, in order for the GOP to capture the young vote, the candidates will have to start speaking the language of the youth.
“I would encourage all the GOP candidates to focus on jobs and the economy. President Obama has one of the worst jobs records of any modern president and has left young people coming out of college going into a sinking job market. His overly-regulatory policies, Keynesian approach to spending and short-sighted solutions have left young people in the cold,” Farah added.
This mean 48% of my generation is still retarded.
Shovel taxpayer money at ‘em.
Pay off their student loans. Give ‘em all low-interest mortgates, or give ‘em all free houses, what the heck. Executive order.
Do I have to think of everything?
Hope and Change!
Maybe he needs to impose a special ‘smart phone’ service tax on those kids, to ‘create jobs’ LOL
Hope it will last.
slow learners:
they voted for him, and many haven’t jobs.
Don't forget to give all of them an electric car too - maybe a Volt to boost their sales numbers. :)
And all those people are going to vote Republican? Yeah, right....
If you do not ask them to, they are even less likely to vote the way you want.
I was going to say that.
How could that be? The majority of American youth have their head inserted so far up their liberal A!! they can’t see the forest for the trees?
I don’t care what happens to this bunch of dumbasses. It would not hurt my feelings if those who voted Democrat in 2008 stay unemployed. Their support for Obama and other Democrats have set in motion forces which likely will destroy this country. For that reason I have zero sympathy for them.
Four of my five kids voted for Obama in 2008. None will in 2012. Several tell me regularly how much they hate him personally and hate what he has done to the country. I love repeating this!
So who are they going to vote for? Mitt? Don’t make me laugh.
Their producer, James William Guercio, had a concept for melding elements of a "big band" in with a rock band. He tried it with the Buckinghams, in 1966 and 1967, and that group produced some memorable music under his management; several #1 hits.
But with the Buckinghams, he was just a hired gun. With Chicago, he got to do it all his way. This first album, "Chicago," is the result.
Even though it's kind of nonsensical politically, at the time, for one who was a freshman or sophomore in high school and watching all the turmoil play out on the streets (at the 1968 Democrat National Convention), in riots in many large cities, on television (in the news, of course, but also in many prime-time drama plotlines), and -- perhaps most strikingly -- in music on the radio, it made the scene a total multi-media immersion phenomenon, the echos of which are still with us today.
Aha! You ‘get it.’ Tnx
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