THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT. As part of my day job at Campus Progress, I just heard a presentation from the Harvard Institute of Politics detailing the results of their most recent survey of 18 to 24-year olds. There was lots of encouraging news: Today�s young people are more likely than any other generation since the Vietnam era to vote and engage with politics, but are under-counted because exit polls tend to ignore campus polling places. On foreign policy, 75 percent of 18 to 24 year olds believe the United Nations, not the U.S., should take the lead in responding to international conflicts. And young people are positive about the cultural effects of globalization, but are more skeptical about its economic and environmental outcomes. Here are some other highlights from the survey:
- Young Democrats are more independent of their elders than young Republicans are. Like their older counterparts, 18-24 year old Republicans prefer Rudy Giuliani as the next president. But while older Democrats support Hillary Clinton (42% to Obama�s 24% and Edwards� 17%), young Democrats prefer Obama (35% to Clinton�s 29% and Edwards� 9%).
- Dovetailing nicely with Ronald Brownstein�s Obama-skeptic analysis of �beer track� and �wine track� Democratic candidates (the six-packers make more likely winners), Obama is more popular among the highly educated. Obama leads Clinton by only 3 points among 18-24 year olds not enrolled in a 4-year college, but by a whopping 17 points on campuses.
- And don�t discount gender. Obama leads Clinton by 20% among young Democratic men, but young Democratic women prefer Clinton by 6 points.
--Dana Goldstein
