5/02/2012
Libertarian Leanings of Young Voters Dampen Obama's Appeal
Forbes.com
Mitt Romney has spent months selling himself to the Republican base. Now, Barack Obama is working overtime trying to re-sell himself to his base of voters age 18-29.Team Obama knows that hard times and the growing libertarian leanings of young voters will make them a more difficult target than four years ago.
Just as there is no doubt Romney will easily carry reluctant Tea Partiers and social conservatives, Obama will again win the age cohort I call First Globals. But it seems unlikely he will again win 66% of their votes, or that they will equal their turnout of 2008, which matched the historic high set in 1972, the first year the voting age was lowered to 18. Four years ago, First Globals made up 18% of all voters. In 2010, that fell to 12%.
.
.
.
Young voters have been the energy behind Ron Paul (remember him?) He is still in the GOP race for President, apparently looking to impact the party platform. Had Paul chosen to be the nominee of the national Libertarian Party, he would have had the biggest impact of any third party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996. Libertarians meet this week to choose their Presidential ticket. Gary E. Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, who briefly ran for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is the most likely nominee. He wants to legalize marijuana, and that is what the media will likely most focus on. Johnson expects to be on the ballot in all 50 states. That will be his chief resource. I don’t expect the debate commission will give him a chair alongside Obama and Romney. But the Internet will give him access to the many First Globals who aren’t keen about either major party choice.
Should any battleground states be decided by one or two points, the Libertarian candidate could tip the balance. In an interview with the New York Times, Johnson said he expects to take more votes from Obama than Romney. We’ll see.
More: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2012/05/02/libertarian-bent-of-young-voters-tests-obama/
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
| 