Generation Obama

Democracy Corp has some new polling out which reinforces what we already new...young people hate the Republican party. And the 71 year old Senator from Arizona isn't exactly capturing the imagination of the youth vote...even among Republicans (pdf).

Young people also remain engaged. While this survey shows a small drop in the number of young people saying they are “very likely” to vote (rating their likelihood to vote a ten on a ten-point scale), the erosion reflects diminished engagement among Republican-leaning youth. Among Democrats and liberals, young people remain enthusiastic about participating in the 2008 elections.

Among registered youth, Obama holds a 60-33 lead, and among likely voters, that expands to 66% of the 18-29 electorate. In terms of partisan affiliation, Democrats lead Republicans 44-21%; add in leaners and you see a 56-29 breakdown.

While some with a myopic view of history might think this has always been the case, remember, in 2000 Gore only garnered 48% of the 18-29 vote; while Bill Clinton got 53% in his 1996 bid for re-election. In addition, youth voter enthusiasm and turnout has been steadily increasing along with our support for Democratic candidates. All things considered, the Republican party will have to seriously consider changing their image if they ever want to remain viable in the coming years. The image of a party of grumpy old white men just isn't going to cut it in the 21st Century.