Posted on 09/22/2004 10:31:05 AM PDT by No Surrender Monkey
Younger voters think the country is heading in the wrong direction and that President Bush does not share their priorities, but they like Bush personally and are unsure about John Kerry.
Overall, Kerry has a substantial lead among voters under thirty, a reversal of the Bush's nine-point advantage among all registered voters. In a head-to-head contest, Kerry is leading Bush by 10 points (51-41), and in a contest that includes Ralph Nader, Kerry is ahead by 6 (46-40-4).
These results came from a new poll of 18-29-year-olds (conducted September 8-13) by CBS News on behalf of MTV and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE).
Kerry's support, however, could be described as lukewarm. A full two-thirds of his supporters harbor reservations or are voting for Kerry merely out of a greater dislike for the other guy. Less than half of all respondents like Kerry personally.
While those aren't Clintonian numbers, they might be enough, especially given young voters' negative appraisal of Bush's first term. Only 39 percent of the respondents have a favorable impression of the president, only 44 percent approve of the way he is handling his job, and more than half feel he does not share their priorities.
On the other hand, more than half of the respondents like Bush personally (including a fair percentage of Kerry voters) and his supporters are generally more enthusiastic than Kerry's. To muddle the picture even further, when asked to match the candidates to different roles, the respondents chose Bush as the preferred dad, boss and guy to hang out with, while Kerry was tapped as the better teacher and — oh, so crucially — slightly cooler.
Cool or not, the support for both candidates among young voters is more tepid than among voters generally. Forty percent of all Kerry's supporters "strongly favor" him, while only a third of young voters feel the same way. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of Bush's supporters "strongly favor" the president, compared to just over half of his younger supporters.
This does not appear to be a case of youthful political cynicism: 75 percent feel this is one of the most important elections in their lifetime — if not the most — and 85 percent say that it matters who wins. Young voters are following this election closely and nearly 8 in 10 say they definitely plan to vote. The last time voters under 30 were paying as much attention at this stage in the campaign was the 1992 battle between Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ross Perot.
As in 1992, the top issues for young voters this year are the economy and jobs. Only 3 percent of respondents rated the economy as "very good," although over half think it is at least "fairly good." Almost two-thirds describe the job prospects for young people as "fair" or "poor."
Other top concerns of survey respondents were terrorism, education and safeguarding civil liberties. A majority expect some terrorist attack in the next few months. Health care, a major issue for older voters, did not appear on the survey.
Feelings about the war in Iraq are mixed, as slightly more of the respondents agreed that invading Iraq was a good thing than disagreed. There is overwhelming opposition to reinstating the military draft to provide additional soldiers to the conflict. Interestingly, young men are slightly less opposed to a draft than young women.
Somewhat surprisingly, the vice-presidential candidates don't appear to have made much of a splash. Despite the Democrats' frequent attacks on Dick Cheney, 42 percent of respondents have no opinion of the current vice president. John Edwards is even more of an unknown: 58 percent of respondents don't know enough about him to render a view.
Perhaps the most interesting numbers in the survey are that 1 in 4 of the respondents were not registered to vote and that 1 in 5 of registered voters were still undecided as to who to vote for. In a race this close, these votes and potential votes could decide the next president.
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props to Sir Winston Churchill on that quote...
She interviewed some FReepers last year, I think. I don't know if they are in her documentary.
Just heard this morning that registration drives are now on in all Philadelphia high schools, where 40% of the seniors are 18. Not sure this is good. I'm all for 18 year olds voting, but I want the ones to vote who take the time on their own to go and register.
I think Kerry shall lose the edge on "coolness" in the coming few weeks.
I hope the draft lie will be crushed.
(IIRC, was it not DEMOCRAT LEGISLATORS who first floated the idea of reinstating the draft?)
The President needs to let the American people know that it is the Democrats that have called on resintituting the Draft. America must also be told about how the military feels about Kerry ... They hate him and think him traitorous. The only truth in a draft is that If Kerry would to be elected the military would get out at thier EAOS in droves... Kerry will also support weapons planning and pay cuts for the military which will also cause serious recruiting goal failures... This will in turn necessitate the institution of a draft... So a vote for Kerry is a vote for the draft... The DEMS try to spin it and scare the youth... Good patriotic americans would not fear a draft.. but liberal minded socialists use the threat to instill fear.
What's the methodology, Kenneth?
Everyone with an IQ over 30 will be voting for Bush.
I believe Charlie Rangel authored that bill.
I love that Churchill quote because I can proudly point out to people that I have both Heart and Mind.
It is a devastating quote to fire at liberals, many of them loved him, and haven't heard it ...
/
I have heard it attributed to two people...Winston Churchill and Otto Von Bismark.
I won't vote for Kerry. He sucks.
Obviously this is the result of the lie about the draft.
This is true. This is an improvement. Which leads me to believe that the younger voters including myself being 27, are starting to see through the tricks of the MSM, you notice when young people pay more attention to the elections conservative support goes up a bit. It's starting to show with the booing of the SKerry daughters at the MTV awards show. The 18-20 year old voters are still brainwashed by their parents beliefs and will usually side with them, such as the 12 year old at the DNC who really don't understand too much about politics but they like the talking points, and jokes such as Buck Fush etc. It takes a couple of years until they wake up to whats really going on and thus their opinions usually change.
How many mouthbreathing NYC twentysomethings did Flipper reel in on that one, do you know? I seem to recall 5 or 6, but didn't get to hear the whole hour.
The under 30 vote will hardly make a difference. The turnout among this group will be nill, just like the low turnout among African Americans this year.
yep:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/rangel.draft/
chuckie rangel, D-NY (Harlem), decided to be the DNC's cats-paw on this front.
I agree. They can register all the seniors in Philadelphia but unless they personally pick them up and take them to the polls, they won't show up.
"Kerry was tapped as the better teacher and — oh, so crucially — slightly cooler"
Kerry as slightly cooler. I find that hard to believe.
John Kerry has not held an open press conference in 57 days.
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