Young Voters Back Barack Obama Over Romney … but Many Aren’t Poised to Vote … Hope & Change = No Jobs

As reported at Gallup, President Barack Obama may have a substantial lead with young voters over presumptive GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney; however, will the young people actually come out and vote on election day?  Only about 56% of the youth vote said they would vote in the general election. Barack Obama faces a real challenge in his 2012 reelection bid. That problem … his first disastrous, epic fail Presidential term in office.

President Obama this week made an explicit effort to shore up his support among young voters, embarking on a “college tour” of campuses in North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa. Obama called on Congress to pass legislation that would keep the interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer, as they are scheduled to do under current law. Romney, in a rare instance of agreement with Obama, also came out in support of Congress’ taking this action, marking his own effort to gain support among the youth vote.

The practical value of Obama’s broad support among young voters is lessened by the fact that only six in 10 of these voters say they are registered to vote, and that fewer than six in 10 who are registered say they will definitely vote in November’s election. By way of contrast, Romney’s relatively strong support among voters 65 and older is more politically potent; these older voters are well above average in their voter registration percentage, and are most likely of any age group to say they will definitely vote in November’s election.

In 2008, 18% of the voting electorate was the youth vote. Of course Obama won the vote handily over McCain in 2008. However, those youth who voted in 2008 for Obama have little to show for their “Hope & Change” vote. Obama has recently gone out on his pandering college tour discussing student loans, but those in the audience will hardly be affected by any laws passed now. What has affected the American youth is … one in two new College Graduates are Unemployed or Underemployed. That is what will be in the minds of the “youth” vote when in comes election day.

Barack Obama’s Lost that Youth Luvin’ Feeling … 2008 Excitement Has Turned to 2012 Obama Apathy

Barack Obama’s 2008 “Hope & Change” with America’s youth has turned to apathy in 2012.

Remember when Obama and his reelection minions were looking for a new campaign slogan for 2012? I think they might have found one. Unenthusiasm and apathy is the slogan for the American youth in 2012 when it comes to president Barack Obama. The once euphoric mood of today’s youth has subsided to apathy. Obama road to victory in 2008 on a wave of youth support in his run to the presidency, winning 66% of the 18 to 29 aged voters against John McCain. However, Barack has lost that youth “luvin’ feeling”. The foot soldier of 2008 are now the unemployed and underemployed of 2012.

“There’s definitely a significant sense that this generation are more apathetic headed into the 2012 election than they were in 2008,” John Della Volpe, director of polling for Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, said in a phone interview.

Obama’s approval rating among college students dropped to 46 percent last December from 58 percent in November 2009, according to a Harvard University poll. Fifty percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 said they would “definitely” be voting, an 11 percentage-point decrease from the fall of 2007. A third of respondents said they approved of Democrats in Congress, and 24 percent approved of Republicans. Just 12 percent said the nation was headed in the right direction.

“The turnout will not be great,” Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, said in a phone interview. The war in Afghanistan, a lack of progress on closing Guantanamo Bay and a dismal job picture taint Obama’s prospects, he said.The unemployment rate among 18- to 24-year-olds was 16.3 percent at the end of last year, the highest since record-keeping began in 1948, according to a February Pew Research Center report.

We have stated for quite some time that there is no way that Obama could capture that same energy and crazed hysteria that vaulted him into office in 2008. It was based on emotion, not substance. It was based upon promises, not reality. It was based upon running against GWB, not the fact that Obama was ill prepared to be President. Four years later, Obama has kept few promises, has offered no fix to the economy and in fact the youth are worse off today than they were four years ago.  They have certainly Lost that Luvin’ Feeling.

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