President Obama was bound to lose his grip on the youth vote. Young people may think they are immortal, but they aren’t stupid. They can do math, and, according to every available calculation on the federal deficit, the under-30 crowd is screwed. They are the ones who will be stuck with the bill for decades of overspending by their elders. And still, Democrats are resisting cuts.
Reuters today reports an extraordinary new statistic out of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. In 2008 – when President Obama was elected with the help of the much-heralded youth vote – the Democratic Party had a seven-point registration advantage over Republicans among white voters under the age of 30. Less than three years later, Republicans have an 11-point registration advantage among those very same voters – an 18-point swing in just three years.
One has to think that change occurred for at least three reasons, 1.) Icarus-Obama predictably fell from the sky; young people didn’t realize that would invariably happen, 2.) war is no longer the prevailing issue in America; debt is, and 3.) Unemployment remains high among young people, even those with college degrees.
Cracks in the President’s standing among young voters were beginning to appear as early as last January. Today’s Pew Poll is nothing short of breathtaking, though.
I appreciate the list of three reasons why this is happening (although I think you need to look closer at which states are seeing these numbers change so much), but 3 is the only one that matters. I’m assuming the ticket is Romney/Bachmann and 3 could very well get them elected. Let’s hope their both better than they currently appear. Obama fell to Earth, as grown-ups like us expected he would. R/B is only six inches off the ground, so maybe the fall won’t even be noticeable. Or they will take us a mile under the surface, straight to hell.