Washington Post Obama and young voters: Why all the love lost? Posted by Natalie Jennings at 04:45 PM ET, 10/28/2011
President _Obama’s support among young voters_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/president-obama-and-young-voters-are-no-longer-a-love-m atch/2011/10/27/gIQAdHoWMM_blog.html) has dropped 32 percent since 2009, the Fix’s Aaron Blake wrote Thursday. How did President Obama’s approval numbers fall so sharply among a demographic that voted for him in record numbers in 2008? And how can he regain their support in 2012? We asked _Twitter_ (http://twitter.com/postpolitics) , _Facebook_ (https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpostpolitics) and _Quora_ (http://www.quora.com/Obama-2012-Reelection-Campaign/Why-and-when-did-President-Obama-lose-his-way- with-the-youth-vote) followers to weigh in. Here is what you had to say. Quora user _Joshua Enge_ (http://www.quora.com/Joshua-Engel) l wrote that “ improbably high positives” doomed Obama’s chances of maintaining support. The bigger he was, the harder he had to fall. Approval ratings are potentially misleading because of it: people opposing Obama from the left, rather than the right, would be stupid to vote for the candidate from the far right. They will, however, lead to an enthusiasm gap. It’s very hard to predict how that will affect the outcome of a reelection campaign, though I think it’s safe to say that absolute turnout for him will be lower than last time... Welcome to politics, kids. Holding up signs is the fun part. Governing sucks Twitter user _Andrew Kearney_ (http://twitter.com/KearneyAndrew) had a similar outlook on younger voters and Obama in 2012 Quora user _Robert George_ () wrote: Like all other voters, young voters are upset that the economy isn’t doing well and they can’t find jobs. That is going to reduce his support with all voting groups. But there doesn’t appear to be any reason to think Obama has done something special to disappoint young voters at this point. And _Chris Weigl_ (http://www.quora.com/Chris-Weigl) wrote: You could attribute individual policies to his decline, but I don’t think that young people are as concerned about individual policies as much as they are with the daunting task that they face in the new American economy... Quora respondent _Barry Hampe_ (http://www.quora.com/Barry-Hampe) of the Cato Institute wrote the president lost his cool factor after he was elected. Obama was the voice of optimism on the stump. But since taking office he’s sounded more and more like a not very interesting professor or, even worse, like America’s father. Not a lot of appeal for young voters in either of those personas. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
