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I caught a very interesting dissection of the election results yesterday on cspan-2, with a bipartisan panel of pollsters, operatives, including Celinda Lake and Ed Goeas. If you see it on their schedule on replay, it's worth seeing the various polling results and conclusions from the panel. It was put on by, of all orgs: AARP

I wish I had more of the comments stored in my brain from Bush's '04 campaign coordinator, Mark McKinnon, but I was listening while working.

Eye-opening to me were revelations of the extent of courting the youth with the new texting technology, youtube, etc. and how successful it was for the Dims. And, I believe Celinda said that, for the first time, the highest percentage of voters in this country are single .. with different issues.

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Here's some other pertinent info

http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory.asp?ID=061109_Ne_A10_Elect22989_0

About 10 million young people voted, according to analysts who studied exit poll data. That's 2 million more than the previous congressional midterm election in 2002.

This year's youth turnout was perhaps the largest for a midterm election since 1982, said Mark Lopez of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.

Democrats regained control of the House for the first time since 1994.

In House races, six in 10 young people voted Democratic, with the Iraq war, economy and terrorism their top concerns, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said Wednesday.

"Young people . . . are becoming increasingly mobilized. They are realizing that they do have power, and are displaying that power through their vote," said Jane Erickson of MD Votes, a nonpartisan group that registered about 8,500 students at 12 Maryland colleges and universities.

Another national issue that didn't figure big with the public at large galvanized young voters, Erickson said: the rising cost of college.

Young people feel neglected by political parties,
but Tuesday's turnout shows that politicians would be wise to court them, said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster.

The overall turnout Tuesday was just over 40 percent. About 24 percent of young eligible voters went to the polls.

The youth vote was larger than the national average in Michigan, Montana, Minnesota and Missouri.

David Rosenfeld of the Student Public Interest Research Groups said campus organizers nationwide sent out more than 15,000 cell phone text messages, worked the phones and went door-to-door to register students.

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Youth turnout in election biggest in 20 years

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061109/us_nm/usa_elections_youth_dc_2

Republican pollster Ed Goeas said young voters could have swayed a number of tight races on Tuesday, noting that of 28 seats Democrats picked up from Republicans in the 435-member House of Representatives, 22 were won by less than 2 percent of the vote and 18 were won by just 5,000 votes or less.

"The increase in the youth vote did come into play," he said.

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Youtube and similar sites made a big difference, and as Ed Goeas related, it is stunning that so many races were lost by us by only 1-3% margins. Just makes you wince.