Like, yay

Katrina Trinko on Mitt Romney's lack of resonance among certain deep-thinking young voters:

In March, on the eve of the Illinois primary, over a thousand Bradley University students gathered to hear Mitt Romney. Dressed casually, many in shorts and T-shirts, they stood outside on an unusually warm spring day in Peoria. They listened as 30-year-old Republican Representative Aaron Schock introduced Romney, and watched as Romney was presented with a bright red Bradley University hoodie. When Romney took the microphone, he passionately made the case for young adults to embrace the GOP.

“Every trillion dollars this president amasses, every year, guess who is going to pay that?” he asked. “Not me. I’m gone. I’m too old to pay it back. You’re going to pay it back.”

But there was no indication that Romney’s message resonated. Some of those watching called out “Obama 2012.” The first question was pointed: “So you’re all for like, yay, freedom, and all this stuff,” a woman said. “And yay, like pursuit of happiness. You know what would make me happy? Free birth control.”

Emphasis like mine. Read the rest. Also from Miss Trinko, this observation:

As a twenty-something myself, I’m used to people simply assuming I’m an Obama fan. And I’m also struck by how much success the Democrats and Obama have had in making voting for a Republican an act viewed as socially bizarre by large swathes of young adults not living in red states. Romney’s making compelling arguments for why young adults should vote for him: they’re the ones who will have to pay back the debt, and they’re the ones who would benefit greatly by an increase in number of jobs available. But unless his team manages to develop some new messaging style that really resonates among young adults, it’s hard to see him shifting a large chunk of the youth vote his way, although he may succeed in getting some of them too discouraged about Obama to bother voting for him again.

Or Obama may handle that all by himself with his long-running slow jam on jobs and the economy. Michael Barone notes that polls on the youth vote vary but agree on an important point:

Recent surveys of young people show inconsistent results. Gallup's tracking shows Obama leading Mitt Romney 64% to 29%, and a Harvard Institute of Politics poll shows him leading Romney 43% to 26% among those who said they had an opinion.

But a March survey of 18- to 24-year-olds by the Public Religion Research Institute showed Obama ahead of "a Republican" by only 48% to 41%. Only 52% had favorable opinions of Obama, and 43% had unfavorable opinions.

Where the surveys seem to be in accord is that young voters are less engaged, less likely to vote and less enthusiastic about Obama than in the days when he was proclaiming, "We are the change we are seeking."

Gallup shows only 56% of Americans under 30 saying they definitely will vote. [. . .]

The most recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed only 45% of young people taking a big interest in the election, down from 63% in 2008.

I wouldn't be surprised if young people ultimately turned out to be a non-factor in November, with Obama's popularity edge canceled out by youthful apathy, idealistic disgust for the process, and a small increase in support for Romney among our more astute young adults who haven't already given up.

By the way, I heartily approve this message from Mitt:

Romney rejected Democratic efforts to question whether he would have given the directive to kill bin Laden, saying “of course” he would have done so. “Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.”

More of that, please.

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Irrelevant, but in case you're reminded of the same song as I, here it is.

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Many thanks to Pew Sitter for the link. Thanks also to IOTW for their link.

Politicaljunkie Mom has more on the Like, yay generation.

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