One of President Obama’s most ardent blocs of supporters in 2008 could sit out the 2012 election, as young people experience record levels of unemployment and debt.
Half of the 18- to 29-year-olds polled by [Hiram] College's Garfield Institute for Public Leadership say they prefer Obama, compared with 37 percent who back the former Massachusetts governor. In 2008, exit polls indicated that 68 percent of voters in that age group supported Obama, while 29 percent favored Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain.
Political Scientist Jason Johnson, who heads the college's year-long "Listening to Young Voters" project, says young voters are disappointed that Obama hasn't solved nation's problems over the past four years, but aren't convinced that Romney will do any better.
He anticipates the lack of enthusiasm will depress that group's high voter participation from 2008. The 22 million young voters who showed up at the polls that year represented the third highest turnout in that demographic since 1972, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, a Tufts University analysis found.
Obama has tried to court younger voters by pledging to keep student loan interest rates low, as well as trying to drive companies to hire young, mostly unpaid interns.
