Gallup: Young Voters Not Enthusiastic About 2010

So much for Obama's plan to rev up the youth vote to support him and Democrats in 2010 (from Gallup):

Younger voters remain less enthusiastic about voting in this year's midterm elections than those who are older, underscoring the challenge facing the Democratic Party in its efforts to re-energize these voters, who helped President Obama win the presidency in 2008.

The fact that voters under age 50 -- and particularly those under 30 -- are less enthusiastic about voting this year is not a new phenomenon; voter turnout typically skews older. The current data, based on Gallup Daily tracking conducted April 1-25, confirm that so far, 2010 provides no exception to this traditional pattern.

It thus is not surprising that President Obama and Democratic Party leaders on Monday launched an effort to stoke enthusiasm among young people and other voting groups that helped support Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Obama issued a new online video that includes this exhortation to his supporters: "It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos, and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again."

I recently did a piece on the youth vote that ties right in to this Gallup poll. Every election cycle political operatives try to stir up the youth vote, and every election cycle it fails. It will this time too.

Moe Lane takes an interesting look at these Gallup numbers:

…and while Gallup accurately noted that the numbers for under-30 year olds are better for the Democrats than for any other age group the polling organization somehow completely neglected to make any sort of historical comparison.  It might have been interesting, for example, if Gallup had compared these numbers to its survey of the 2008 exit polling data…

Age	Obama	McCain
Under 30 years	61	39
30 to 49 years	53	47
50 to 64 years	54	46
65 and older	46	54
50 and older	51	49

Yes. Very interesting.  For one thing, Gallup would have been able to suggest that there was some indication that GOP voter enthusiasm remains more or less unchecked from 2010, while Democratic enthusiasm has declined across the board.  And that the Democrats’ problem is not that the youth vote is less enthusiastic about voting against Republican candidates: it’s that their support from voters between 30 and 64 has apparently taken similar nosedives.  And that over-65 voters appear even more ready to vote Republican this go-round.  All of these things would have made for an improved article… which would have challenged Gallup’s assumption thatthe Democrats are correct to concentrate on the 2010 youth vote in the first place.
That’s starting to look like a dubious assumption.