Reply #10: Welcome to DU [View All]

[Bucky]

Obama tends to bring in newer voters. Internet communities are significantly more experienced and entrenched in expressing their political preferences--which would make them a population group of Americans who tend to skew away from Obama's support base.

It's a statistical sampling problem you're finding. If you went to a Luby's for lunch on a Sunday afternoon, you'd find more Huckabee supporters than the overall population would suggest. If you went to a Hooters on Friday night, you'd be more likely to find McCain and Ron Paul supporters than with the overall population.

DUers seem to be older on average than the rest of the internet, so you're more likely to find Clinton supporters. Her fan base skews up over the age of 50 and down under the age of 40. So DU is a more natural base. Edwards is running a more class-aware populist message this time compared to Clinton and Obama, so he will also skew higher on the internet than among the general population. This is because people on the internet who are motivated to engage in online politics are going to be more likely to adhere stronger to overtly liberal and class-conscious messages such as Edwards is sending out.

By the way, Obama has a pretty strong fan base here at DU. He is not without his blog supporters too.