My organization, CIRCLE, jointly released a poll with MTV yesterday. (That should raise my hipness quotient at least a bit.) It was a survey of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29. Some of the highlights:
Young people are paying more attention to the campaign, and expressing more interest in voting, than at any comparable time since 1992. (Youth turnout spiked in ’92, so we’re hopeful for ’04.)
Kerry leads in this age bracket, although neither candidate is held in very high esteem. Right now, young registered voters would choose Kerry by 46%-40% (with 4% for Nader). They see Bush as a better boss, dad, or person to hang out with; but Kerry is seen as a better teacher. They perceive a closer match between Kerry’s priorities and their own, which is probably why they favor him slightly.
As in all previous polls taken over the last two years, young people rate as their top issues the economy and jobs, terrorism, and the war. This is the same set of priorities that we see among older people.
Meanwhile, I’m off to Greenville, South Carolina to speak about civic education at the State Bar Association meetings ….
This poll is very interesting, especially in light of the interview that Bill O’Reilly conducted with Jon Stewart of the Daily Show last week. The entire transcript is here: http://www.wonkette.com/archives/the-ostewart-factor-021688.php
The gist of it is, O’Reilly crowns Stewart as a major political bellwether for the ‘stoned slacker’ contingent of the electorate (I suspect, but don’t know that Comedy Central’s demographic overlaps quite a bit with MTV’s). Because ‘stoners’ can’t distinguish comedy from real political news and analysis …