Patterico's Pontifications

4/26/2012

Is Obama really in trouble with young voters?

Filed under: 2012 Election — Karl @ 8:56 am



[Posted by Karl]

There has been a wavelet of stories from outlets like The Atlantic, The Hill and Yahoo! suggesting Pres. Obama could be in trouble with the youth vote.  The Atlantic’s Molly Ball notes:

Less than half of 18-to-24-year-old voters want Obama to win reelection, and he leads a generic Republican candidate by just 7 percentage points, according to a survey of youth voter attitudes released Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.

The poll did not test Obama against Romney directly, but found more enthusiasm for Obama than Romney.  The Hill’s Amie Parnes found a somewhat different result in another poll:

Obama leads presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney 60 percent to 34 when it comes to the youth vote, according to a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. But Obama’s enthusiasm has taken a nosedive, the poll shows. In 2008, 63 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds took a big interest in the election. Four years later, 45 percent have the same level of interest, reflecting the most sizable drop in one of the major voting groups.

Yahoo’s Chris Moody reports on yet another survey:

The wide-ranging survey of 3,096 18-29 year-olds conducted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics shows 43 percent said they plan to vote for Obama in November, while just 26 percent plan to vote for Romney. The last time Harvard matched Obama against a GOP challenger, in December 2011, they asked who young voters thought would win the election: 36 percent said Obama would lose, a sign that support for Obama is increasing closer to the election.

***

However, Obama’s approval rating has dipped by six percentage points from Obama’s first year in office, according to a Harvard poll taken in November 2009, from 52 percent to 58 percent. That could be a sign that the youth vote is far more up for grabs in 2012 than it was in 2008, when Obama overwhelming won the youth vote.

As John Sides notes, these types of stories should always be read in the context of a number of polls, as well as the broader population and other demographics.  Sides notes that a recent Pew poll has Obama over Romney 61%-33% among 18-29 year-olds, in comparison to Obama’s 66%-33% victory with the demographic in the 2008 exit poll.  Those numbers better for Obama than some of the polls cited above, but what Sides notes is that Obama’s numbers now are down 3%-5% among all of the age demographics from the 2008 exit poll results.  Moreover, as Andrew Gelman notes, nonuniform swings are difficult to detect in a survey, because they have a larger margin of error.  In short, Obama’s problem with young voters is likely reflective of Obama’s problem with voters generally.

So why is Obama wooing college students and slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon at taxpayer expense this week?  Because Team Obama, like most everyone, is anticipating a much closer election in 2012 than in 2008.  If Obama were to drop from 66% to the level of youth support John F. Kerry got in 2004 (~54%), he would lose ~2% of the overall vote, which he likely cannot afford.  We cannot know this for certain. Obama’s 2008 performance with young voters was tied in part to his boost in performance and turnout of minority voters.  Conversely, we do not know whether the Republican-leaning youth vote was particularly depressed.  While the latest raft of polls might look like Obama’s youth vote has softened, the GOP should not take it for granted any more than Obama does.

–Karl

77 Responses to “Is Obama really in trouble with young voters?”

  1. Ding!

    Karl (f07e38)

  2. The bad news: Romney has alienated the youth vote, and is not a very appealing candidate too the youth. Obama is, and will happily pander away.

    The good news: youths don’t vote much, so they gotta not just like you, they gotta be energized to come vote. By default there will be less energy in 2012 than there was in 2008. And Romney is so low with youngsters, he can’t help but go up as he shakes the etchasketch.

    In short, we ain’t gonna win the youth vote, but we can sure make Obama work for it.

    Alex (15f526)

  3. Trouble? I see as many GTFO stickers on college kids’ cars as anyones:

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/04/53-of-new-graduates-are-jobless-or.html

    Seriously, a generation is lost. Big business is the only game left and that means top won-%-ers.

    gary gulrud (1de2db)

  4. The youth turnout (like the black turnout) was unusual in 2008, as young people voted “to make history” with their first presidential votes. Now that the statement has been made, it seems likely that youth turnout will return to historic levels, which is to say pretty pathetic.

    Meanwhile, Obama’s numbers with middle-aged and elderly voters continue to slide, and they ALL vote.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  5. Note the current divergence between “likely-voter” polls (e.g. Rasmussen) and “registered-voter” polls (e.g. Gallup). In the end, only people who actually vote matter.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  6. Doesn’t Chris Moody, mix up the finding about who is plan to vote for, 43% and who they think they will win, 36%.

    narciso (8d0f34)

  7. The only thing to do for EU is ditch economic union. The only thing for the US is to dump 20% of government, Federal, State and Local:

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/04/china-says-fiscal-condition-of-us.html

    Deflation/Inflation depends on where one looks. Yes we have home prices at 2002 levels and headed down, we also have food/energy inflation, evaporating services and burgeoning regulation accomodation by the serviced.

    Eat your I-Phone and be happy.

    gary gulrud (1de2db)

  8. The kids I know (I’ve got an 18 yr old daughter who hangs out with smart kids) all despise Obama. From the foreign wars to fast and furious (which more kids know about than I would have guessed) to the war on drugs, crony capitalism… The only ones who are still enamored with this clown are the ones who aren’t paying attention. Of course, that’s who he’s counting on to vote for him.

    Ghost (6f9de7)

  9. The Libertarian view:

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/04/does-it-matter-if-obama-beats-romney.html

    Yes not having the enemy of our children in office matters but what we really need is civil war.

    gary gulrud (1de2db)

  10. Kevin M (4),

    To elaborate on the related point in my post, the lopsided youth vote in 2008 is in large part a function of increased minority turnout in 2008. Overall, the youth vote only increased 1% from ’04 to ’08, so the mix is the key here. I don’t know how much minority dropoff there will be, but the youth vote in 2012 might be a bit more pale, given the anemic economy hurts Obama now instead of helping him.

    Karl (f07e38)

  11. narciso (6),

    Moody’s piece is a little vague, but if you read the .pdf it appears the 43% figure is the same for both Obama support and “thinks Obama will win.”

    Karl (f07e38)

  12. Unless Romney wins by an overwhelming margin, say 65/35, off-shore computers will return an Obama victory. The fix is already in.

    George Soros just bought SCYTL, a Barcelona-based company that owns the rights to count most of the votes in the upcoming US Election. Barack Obama approved SCYTL to provide secure vote counting services in US elections, and one of his Chicago pals has been named CEO.

    Note well that a foreign based company will count our votes, and that company is owned by Obama’s chief benefactor, George Soros.

    As Joseph Stalin reminded us: It doesn’t matter who votes, it only matters who counts the votes.

    Barack Obama will be named President no matter the actual vote count, and Americans will have no way to compare actual votes by precinct with totals reported by SCYTL.

    ropelight (828285)

  13. Really, you have a sample where they trust the UN, over the Congress, and the rest of the Govt, that’s ‘stuck on stupid’

    narciso (8d0f34)

  14. FYI, the phrase “young voters” is an oxymoron.

    Tsar Nicholas II (cb2d5b)

  15. This is one topic where I’m going with what I see and hear: Not many young voters like Obama or his leadership, and the ones who still like him aren’t motivated to campaign for him.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  16. The issue is not whether young people prefer Obama to Romney; they do. (Honestly, they’d probably prefer Ron Paul to either, but they won’t have that option). The issue is whether young people care enough about Obama’s re-election to bother voting; my sense is they don’t.

    Ropelight, welcome to the anti-computerized-voting cause. IMO, abolishing computerized vote tabulation is the single most important reform we could undertake.

    aphrael (5d993c)

  17. Information is helpful. If you go to Politico’s site, you learn that, in 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama missed two votes on student loans that resulted in the current situation.

    So it’s no wonder that he needs to “slow jam” his version of events. Because his record, um, doesn’t support his rhetoric.

    And by the way, during the Fallon thing? Why did the President sound like the whitest person in the skit?

    Simon Jester (c1e5db)

  18. ______________________________________________

    The Libertarian view:

    Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren’t easily replaced by computers.

    Another phenomenon that has become pervasive over the past few decades is the idea that going to college and getting a degree — any degree — is far more important and valuable than pursuing a career in a less glossy technical trade (I’ve read that in parts of the country there are well-paying but somewhat “blue-collar” jobs that go begging for qualified workers). Although that notion goes beyond the purely political, a lot of folks on the left, nonetheless, do love to shed tears over portions of society not getting financial assistance to attend a university.

    Of course, colleges are full of liberal staffers, so the two sides of the equation (ie, Democrat/liberal politicians and faculties throughout America) are aware of — as the cliche goes — which side their bread is buttered on.

    Mark (411533)

  19. Yes, I, too, am concerned with the attitude of college students, Mark.

    Our college students need to be majoring in hard subjects such as math, science, and engineering. We used to be the best in the world, but for the past 20 years, most college libraries contain Korean, Vietnamese, and Phillipino students and not Americans.

    American students (who don’t even realize how they have been sold out by their public school teachers) now major in “invented subjects” such as “Feminism” (AKA we don’t need no stinking men) or “How to be a community organizer” (AKA we don’t need no stinking constitution)

    I fear for our country. College used to take dedication and a brain. Now it takes only money. But it’s not worth anything.

    For what it’s worth, if obummer is counting on college students to make a difference, he is desperate.

    Charlotte (4c5f92)

  20. aphrael, politics does indeed make for strange bedfellows. We have on occasion found ourselves on the same side of an issue, however, most often we are decidedly at sixes and sevens.

    I stand foursquare against computer tabulations which cannot be compared to the paper trail left by physical ballots directly identified with a specific registered voter.

    ropelight (828285)

  21. “The wide-ranging survey…by Harvard…shows 43 percent said they plan to vote for Obama in November, while just 26 percent plan to vote for Romney. The last time Harvard matched Obama against a GOP challenger, in December 2011, they asked who young voters thought would win the election: 36 percent said Obama would lose, a sign that support for Obama is increasing closer to the election.”

    This sounds like he’s saying “who are you going to vote for” is the same question as “who do you think will win.” These are vastly different questions as the statement “I’m voting for Romney but I think Obama will win” should easily illustrate. I don’t think any intelligent person could equate these two statements so I’m going to suggest that the author is trying to find support for his thesis that this is “a sign that support for Obama is increasing closer to the election” where no such sign exists.

    Adam B (ca60d7)

  22. I think the bigger issue for the youth vote is the gross number of votes cast, not necessarily the spread between Obama and Romney.

    Young voters are notoriously lazy on election day. Obama’s entire campaign vibe, and his effective use of social media for the first time in a Presidential Campaign, produced a much higher than normal turnout rate for voters 18-24.

    But, one fact often ignored is that the voters who were 18-24 in 2008 are now 22-28, and voters who will be in the 18-24 category in 2012, were 14-20 in 2008.

    Its not the same group of voters.

    So, the real question is whether first time voters, ages 18-21, will turnout in the same numbers as their 2008 counterparts, and whether voters 22-28 in 2012 will repeat their voting patterns in the same numbers they did in 2008.

    shipwreckedcrew (96a8a6)

  23. Obama’s internal polling suggests he’s in big trouble with voters across the board, that’s why he’s so desperate to pander to groups x, y, and z.

    He wouldn’t be doing this rock concert tour of colleges in swing states if he thought he already had the youth vote all sewn up. And even if he does “win” the youth vote percentage wise, the youngins still have to be motivated enough to show up on a rainy Tuesday next November in between Toga parties and term papers.

    Dead people voting in Chicago, illegals voting here in California, and the Black Panthers providing “security” at the polling stations in Philadelphia can only get him so far in the context of the electoral college.

    It’s just so ironic how when prescription drugs go up in price, the liberals say “Big Pharma” is to blame. When the price of gasoline goes up, the liberals say “Big Oil” is to blame. When the price of health insurance goes up, the liberals say “Big Insurance” is to blame.

    But when the price of tuition at college skyrockets, you never hear the liberals blame “Big Education” for raping students for profits.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  24. Overall, the youth vote only increased 1% from ’04 to ’08

    Karl, I did not know that. I must have read different in the Times. My bad.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  25. Ropelight (#12)

    Snopes begs to differ. Scytl and its CEO have no connection to Soros or Obama, and the company has little to no connection to US vote counting. Snopes isn’t even a little bit weaselly about this; they call BS pretty forthrightly.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  26. Re #12-
    On occasion when I find myself up in the middle of the night I will turn on the radio which has Savage at that hour. I heard of this in a quote from him something to the effect of “We sold the election to foreigners, we now live in a dictatorship”!

    It is pretty bad when a nation supposedly among the leaders of the free world can not validate the accuracy of their elections.

    Is there any truth to the rumor that Al Franken is chairing a committee on oversight of federal elections? (Just kidding…I hope…)

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  27. Re #’s 25 and 26,
    Hmmm

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  28. Comment by Elephant Stone — 4/26/2012 @ 1:12 pm

    But when the price of tuition at college skyrockets, you never hear the liberals blame “Big Education” for raping students for profits.

    That’s just the price, to Obama and Schumer.

    You see, there’s one thing:

    Nobody generally owns stock in colleges. They are almost all non-profit institutions.

    Now privately owned colleges, that they can complain about:

    Battle Lines Drawn Over For-Profit Colleges by Tamar Lewin published by the New York Times first on the web Thursday June 24, 2010:

    WASHINGTON — The battle lines on the future of for-profit colleges were being drawn Wednesday, a day before a series of Congressional hearings on the issue were to begin.

    One source of contention was the planned appearance at the hearings of Steven Eisman, a hedge fund manager known for having predicted the housing market crash. He has recently compared the for-profit college sector to the subprime mortgage banking industry — arguing that both grew rapidly based on lending to low-income people with little ability to repay the loans.

    His prepared testimony for the hearings repeats that theme, calling the for-profit colleges “marketing machines masquerading as universities.”

    In a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday afternoon, Harris N. Miller, the head of the Career College Association, which represents the profit-making colleges, questioned why Mr. Eisman had been invited as a witness at the hearings.

    Mr. Miller called the comparison to the housing market silly and simplistic, and said that Mr. Eisman stands to make money on the decline of the education stocks, so his views are hardly unbiased.

    “It is no secret that the career education sector is under attack by short sellers, trial lawyers, self-styled consumer advocates and some traditional academics,” he said in his remarks on Wednesday. “Although they should know better, these critics use anecdotes to generalize and to make sweeping condemnations of our sector. They seize on admittedly flawed government data to make the most extreme statistical arguments.”

    In advance of the hearings, Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, issued findings showing how much taxpayer money these colleges were receiving, how difficult it was to track how that money was being used, and how much students were benefiting.

    The report, a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times, suggests a basic conflict: For-profit colleges have an obligation to maximize shareholder profits — and that mandate can conflict with the objective of federal student aid, which is to increase students’ access to quality higher education.

    The Harkin report calls for-profit colleges “an important part of the mix” both because they can increase access to higher education, and because they offer “innovative options” that can make it easier for students to study while holding down a job or raising a family.

    At the same time, the report says profit-making colleges generally charge higher tuition than comparable public colleges, spend a large share of revenue on expenses not related to teaching, experience high dropout rates, and, in some cases, use abusive recruiting and debt management practices….

    Or:

    Senator to Review Accreditation of For-Profit Colleges by Tamar Lewin published by the New York Times first on the web Wednesday, August 4, 2010: (for Thursday’s paper, as the URL indicates)

    As part of the expanding Congressional scrutiny of for-profit colleges, Senator Tom Harkin announced at a hearing on Wednesday that he plans to examine their accreditation process.

    The hearing featured a report by the Government Accountability Office, whose investigators found deceptive practices or fraud at the 15 for-profit colleges they visited, including two University of Phoenix campuses, two Kaplan Colleges, and a Corinthian Colleges institution.

    At some colleges, investigators posing as prospective students were encouraged to list fake dependents or hide their savings. At others, admissions officials refused to let them consult financial aid officers until they signed an enrollment agreement.

    “Contrary to what we’ve heard from the industry, these practices seem to be standard,” said David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “They do not appear to be isolated acts of bad actors.”

    Mr. Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who said he would request documents from 30 colleges, also questioned whether, rather than containing a few bad apples, “the entire orchard” was “contaminated by a business model that churns students — provokes the kind of recruitment and unethical conduct we saw through the G.A.O., because of the need to increase profits and answer to Wall Street.”

    Last year, for-profit colleges received $4 billion in federal grants and $20 billion in Department of Education loans….

    Sammy Finkelman (f913b2)

  29. ==Its not the same group of voters.==

    shipwreckedcrew–the points you made at 12:42 pm are important ones. The first time voters of 2012 are not going to have the rush and sense of importance of voting in an “historic election” and many of 2008’s exited and motivated first time voters are currently unemployed and very disillusioned. Obama has set the stage for people to blame others for their problems. It seems much more likely that scared and unhappy young people are going to look around and “blame” Obama–rather than blaming George Bush. They may not vote for Romney, but they have no good reason to bother to vote for more Obama either. The young adults that I hang with have become very cynical about politics and government over the past three years.

    elissa (a66cd7)

  30. Comment by MD in Philly — 4/26/2012 @ 2:19 pm

    On occasion when I find myself up in the middle of the night I will turn on the radio which has Savage at that hour.

    He’s on WOR 710 AM in New York from 6 PM to 9 PM, except for 6:30 to 6:45, when he is preempted for the first half of the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. You could probably hear WOR at night. They used to boast of being heard in 38 states (before the Internet)

    On what frequency and what station is he on in Philadelphia and what time of the night? I could probably try DXing it one time.

    Sammy Finkelman (f913b2)

  31. Comment by Adam B — 4/26/2012 @ 12:40 pm

    This sounds like he’s saying “who are you going to vote for” is the same question as “who do you think will win.” These are vastly different questions as the statement “I’m voting for Romney but I think Obama will win” should easily illustrate. I don’t think any intelligent person could equate these two statements so I’m going to suggest that the author is trying to find support for his thesis that this is “a sign that support for Obama is increasing closer to the election” where no such sign exists.

    I understand this. One of the ideas in sociology is that if you ask people what they think others would do, they tell you (more honestly maybe) about what they would do, or think, or at least it correlates on average.

    Sammy Finkelman (f913b2)

  32. Sammy,

    Friend, actually, somebody does own the public colleges…they’re called, “taxpayers.”

    My point about comparing “Big Education” to “Big Oil,” “Big Insurance,” and “Big Pharma,” is that the liberals always blame the supply side of the equation…except in the cases when the government is the supply side of an equation. Obama acts like there’s no governing authority of public colleges, and that we all just have to live with the notion that public colleges will continue to increase tuition, unrestrained.

    Where are the grandstanding state or federal Congressional investigations into the rising costs of college tuition ?

    The fact that government-financed colleges are not for profit, does not give them a free pass to continually jack up tuition on the taxpayers who are already “paying” for the overhead of the college in the first place. The public colleges are already largely financed by taxpayer money BEFORE they depend upon a dime of tuition from students.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  33. WNTP 990 AM (Bennett/Prager/Medved/hewitt)
    3-5 am, after delayed Dennis Miller and before WSJ this AM.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  34. brown-nose to new heights
    slow jam this jimmy fallon
    whiter shade of pale

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  35. Re #12 Ropelight.
    The Feds don’t count the vote.
    The individual states do.

    Mike Giles (a110b2)

  36. Barry tells students
    #dontdoubleourrate I say
    #dontdoublehisterm

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  37. Perhaps anecdotal, but my daughter, college graduate this past December reports that at her University in 2008 (in a VERY blue city), the college Republicans office was occupied only with cobwebs, but by Dec 2011, activity was enjoying a steady pace.
    Only 1 of her friends is working in their field of study. Many voted for Obama in 2008, but they are understanding now that Keynesian economics do not work, and they just want frikking jobs. Slow-jamming the news may be cool, but it does not lead to jobs.

    sybilll (17bf32)

  38. his bankrupt slogans
    small comfort in lieu of jobs
    vote his damn ass out!

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  39. moron thinks he can
    do ANY job better than
    American peeps

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  40. I say let him stare
    into world-class size mirror
    half-black Narcissus

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  41. give the past the slip
    in King 0bama’s sad case
    slip is colored pink

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  42. yeah enjoy yourself
    Americans fight and die
    while Barry slow jams

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  43. the bill comes due as
    reality closes in
    he’s still slow jammin’

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  44. Dinner-time nation
    hey… was it something I said?
    haiku dominates

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  45. Burma Shave

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  46. Barack loses job
    saves Michelle the bother of
    shopping for new gown

    elissa (f9eaea)

  47. yes!

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  48. michelle’s secret dream
    she walks out the white house door
    and just keeps walkin’

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/04/26/michelle_obama_fantasy_is_to_walk_out_wh_and_just_keep_walking.html

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  49. taxpayer dime goes
    farther when air force one no
    longer the O’s “ride”

    elissa (f9eaea)

  50. the 20-somethings I know love Obama but one smokes weed all the time with his fat wife he married for her comic book collection and the other one keeps starting corporations in Delaware for tax purposes even though he has no income whatsoever except for what his mom gives him and what he gets from participating in focus groups and the other ones are just dumb to where the other day I heard obne of them ask the other what the CDC was and the other one said oh it’s a UN thing that goes all over the world curing viruses.

    Obama voters. God love em.

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  51. I heard *one* of them I mean

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  52. Slow Joe Biden said
    “the president has a big
    stick I promise you.”

    elissa (f9eaea)

  53. guy’s in a wheelchair
    “Chuck… stand up let peeps see you”
    God love ya, slow joe

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  54. Colonel Haiku
    blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
    Billing by the word?

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  55. ___________________________________________

    But when the price of tuition at college skyrockets, you never hear the liberals blame “Big Education” for raping students for profits.

    And the growth in cost of higher education has been exceeding the annual cost of living for quite awhile now.

    Moreover, you never hear liberals citing colleges, and the goods/services they provide to “customers” (ie, students and their parents), as being captive to greedy instincts. Then again, most liberals never point to government, whether at the local, state or federal level — and their well-paid employees enjoying among the cushiest pension and healthcare plans in the nation — as being greedy too.

    Today’s typical university with its rocketing cost of tuition, and its many faculty members who won’t take one dime less in compensation — all stroking one another in the rarefied air of the ivory tower (“We love Obama, we adore our heroic, beautiful, generous, humane left-leaning philosophy!!”) — truly is the epitome of limousine liberalism in the 21st century.

    Mark (411533)

  56. Kev’s small feet and hands
    blush cuz girls know what that means
    small shoes tiny gloves

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  57. Rome’s Bureaucrats Better than the EPA’s at Increasing Prosperity!A comparison, with graphics, of how Rome’s takeovers left areas prosperous, whereas Obama/Government interference has the opposite effect. For example, PAX ROMANA vs POX OBAMA. In conclusion — Rome knew how to create wealth. And, despite the fact that Roman soldiers had little qualms about inflicting pain, I would also argue they showed more compassion during their crucifixions than the EPA does during theirs.

    Mutnodjmet (c4995d)

  58. Thursday PM Blues
    the large insect up keister
    Kev’s gendai thrown off

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  59. don’t kill messenger
    when you’ve made your point shut up
    feel the rhythm Kev

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  60. curves ahead sonny
    remember that rabbit’s foot
    didn’t save bunny

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  61. If your peach keeps out
    of reach better practice what
    we preach… Burma-Shave!

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  62. thursday night seems
    oxymoronic somehow
    or is it just me?

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  63. My college sophomore Granddaughter despises Obama and tells me that her friends all feel the same. She is also a performer at a local club that has a mixture of comics and her band as performers and that when the comics are flailing, they go to the “make fun of the big-eared doofus” for the easy laugh.

    Sara (e8f5d4)

  64. You watch. Romney is extremely likeable and he hasn’t had a chance yet to let his fun-loving side shine through. Plus he has a great army in his five sons and the influence they will have with the younger voters. And like he said in his speech the other night, people are tired of being tired. We are also tired of having a president who never takes responsibility for anything and who trashes America at every opportunity. The media may still think he is cool, but I don’t think the younger voters do. They’ve moved on. Obama is so last year. Plus no one will any longer be able to falsely claim that Odumbo is the smartest man in the room. Romney is so far superior, people will take note. I predict Romney in a landslide.

    Sara (e8f5d4)

  65. I think Romney is improving as a candidate, Sara. His positive nature, focus and competence will play well against 0bama’s celebrity, narcissism and sh*tty record of failure upon failure.

    Colonel Haiku (65290e)

  66. Mark #56,

    Amen, brother.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  67. Romney is very polite

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  68. FYI, the phrase “young voters” is an oxymoron.
    Comment by Tsar Nicholas II — 4/26/2012 @ 10:09 am

    — Teh Tsar is an OxyContin moron.

    Icy (02812a)

  69. “And the growth in cost of higher education has been exceeding the annual cost of living for quite awhile now.”

    A)More Government Loans Available For College
    B)More Student Can Afford To Go To College
    C)Raise Tuition

    The underpants gnome theory of higher education.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  70. i know an awful lot of young “obama voters” what didn’t actually vote for obama in a physical sense – it was more of an “i got the t-shirt” thing

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  71. Energy ministers from around the world met in London this week and got a scolding. The International Energy Agency warned the ministers that they are falling way behind in their efforts to wean the world from dirty sources of energy.*

    how is this not cheering?

    we might could beat these bastards yet

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  72. @31 “I understand this. One of the ideas in sociology is that if you ask people what they think others would do, they tell you (more honestly maybe) about what they would do, or think, or at least it correlates on average.”

    I am familiar with that sociological idea but I don’t think “correlates on average” is good enough when we’re talking about a few percentage points in a poll. Unless its a perfect equivalence, its silly to find a trend when asking a different question. The results can easily be explained by the different question, not a trend. To develop a reasonable conclusion, you must compare apples to apples. If not, your wishful thinking is liable to influence your analysis.

    Adam B (55309e)

  73. “And the growth in cost of higher education has been exceeding the annual cost of living for quite awhile now.”

    A)More Government Loans Available For College
    B)More Student Can Afford To Go To College
    C)Raise Tuition

    The underpants gnome theory of higher education.

    Comment by daleyrocks — 4/26/2012 @ 10:30 pm

    Works for housing and health care too – I’ve been saying so {I just humble bragged, I know} for a few years now.

    My mom kept pushing me to by a house, I watched Las Vegas prices jump – sometimes monthly – and said no way. If little ole me could see the stupidity, why can’t “the smartest guy(s) in the room” see it?

    Amy Shulkusky (67fbd5)

  74. Empirically, I don’t see those teens {now 20’s} voting for O again. I’ve known this for almost 2 years now.

    Amy Shulkusky (67fbd5)

  75. Tell the kids: “Just say nO

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)


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