Exit Polls: Young voters were Arnold's Weakest Link

[CMT]

Interesting find in the exit polling. The pundits had said that voters 18-29 would be Arnold's strongest supporters, but the exit polling numbers indicate otherwise. Oh, they still supported him and the recall but not by as wide of a margin as other age groups.

On the Recall of Gray Davis:
18-29 52% Yes and 48% No
30-44 58% Yes and 42% No
45-64 54% Yes and 46% No
65 plus 54% Yes and 46% No

18-29 year olds were 48% against the Recall of Gray Davis.

On the replacement candidates:
18-29 35% for Cruz and 43% for Arnold
30-44 31% for Cruz and 49% for Arnold
45-64 36% for Cruz and 45% for Arnold
65 plus 36% for Cruz and 46% for Arnold

Only 43% of 18-29 year olds voted for Arnold--a lower percentage than any other voting bloc for the Groper.

Other Findings:
* Gray Davis was probably correct when he said he should stand alone with no Democratic replacement candidate. Cruz Bustamante was a disaster. Where NO vote on removing Gray Davis got 46% or 3,397,386 votes thus far (96%) Cruz is struggling with only 33% and 2,273,786 votes running (so far) more than 1.1 million votes behind NO on the recall. Bustamante's favorable rating in the state is only 36% while his unfavorable is 58%. Meanwhile, the Groper has a 50-45 percent favorable rating. Latinos only ent to Bustamante by a unspectacular 52-31 percent compared with 54% of Latinos voting against the Recall.

* Women voted 51-49 in favor of the Recall, to win Davis would have needed to push that No vote among women up to at least 55-57 percent.

* Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals voted 58-42 percent against the Recall. I'm surprised that 42% voted in favor of the recall. On the other hand Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals favored Arnold with only 32% of their votes compared to 51% for Cruz Bustamante.

*Other members of dem base voted against the Recall but not in numbers necessary to defeat it: Democrats 24% voted in favor of recalling Davis, Union members 45% in favor of recalling Davis, African-Americans 27% in favor of recalling Davis, and Latinos 46% in favor of Recalling Davis.

[maha]

1. Well, maybe there is hope for the future.

Not much hope, of course.

[LiberalVoice]

2. As time progresses...

we are becoming more and more liberal...its just unfortunate that we live in times where murderers and perverts are favored over honest men.

[Woodstock]

5. Celebrities are the key

We need to run Julia Roberts for prez in 2004, and our worries are over.

[demnan]

8. No, George Clooney

[CMT]

9. If only Martin Sheen had run.

eom.

[FlaGranny]

11. Sadly, running another movie star

for California and even for president might become a good option. At least the Democratic movie stars are a good looking, intelligent group of people. I am dismayed. It is embarrassing. Is this what we've come to?

This morning I had to get some blood work at a lab. The TV was on and they were talking about the election. Another person in the waiting room (probably seeing me shake my head in disbelief)said "Isn't it ridiculous?" We agreed also that it was ridiculous AND embarrassing.

Martin Sheen probably would have won hands down. After all, he already is "president." And he, no doubt, would make a great governor or real president.

The republicans win because the movers and shakers get together, pick a he-man empty head, and the party sticks together and gets the job done. The Democrats are just too independent for the party leaders to get all of us behind "the" party candidate.

It's hard to come to grips with the shallowness of someone who would vote for Arnold, it really is. Of course, Arnold will probably be to governor as * is to president. Then again, maybe not - Arnold seems stubborn and egotistical so maybe he will go his own way. If he does, it probably would be an improvement over him being "handled" by Rove and friends.

[liberalmuse]

3. Gawd, how I hate my generation...

I really do, except for those fine, but rare exceptions that can be found in the likes of DU.

On edit: I'm referring to the poll numbers. Yep, my age group is the largest group for Ahnold.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. Me too. They are a spoiled clueless bunch of whiners

we were young enough to be shielded from Vietnam, and old enough to live through relative peace and prosperity.
Where were their parents during the depression, and "the war", and the cold war? Did they teach them nothing?
Fucking disgusting. And kids too old to be their own are in the mid-east now defending their putrid, vacuous life styles.
Fuckers.

[BurtWorm]

15. I didn't see these before I posted my own diatribe

against fuckers in our age group. But yours is much better said. Cheers!

[WatchWhatISay]

4. Clear Channel will just have to do a better job in the future

It's roping them in with rock, but it looks like the bait and switch isn't quite as successful as these guys had hoped.

[meti57b]

6. That's important information. Do you have a LINK??

thank you

[CMT]

10. I got it from CNN exit polls

www.cnn.com

[DemNoir]

7. There is zero positive news in those numbers

There is a serious disfunction in American voters. The country is in deeper trouble than i ever could have imagined

[shimmergal]

13. Hmm. Interesting, and not quite what I'd expected...

I was really expecting the young voters to be Arnold's biggest majority, based on his movie star status and super-macho image.

But looking at these figures (and presumably they'll stand up) a couple more things come to mind.

First, the 30-44 year olds are the ones most likely to be suffering from economic setbacks. Soaring energy prices, car & other taxes, unemployment, and other troubles hit them hard. They're right in the midst of the family- and career- building years. These are years of perpetual crisis for many people, even without the dismal things listed above. So if they believe the "blame Gray Davis" stuff about the economy they might well have gone for the recall in the hope of helping their own situation. (Not that Davis was blameless, but it's mostly due to the machinations of * and Enron. This was seldom said in the campaign--we missed a great opportunity there.)

[BurtWorm]

14. Sometimes I loathe my generation

the one that gave the recall and Arnold their largest margins of victory. What a bunch of constipated fuckers we are.

[Kool Kitty]

16. I was listening to the radio this morning,

and it was the lead story on "Democracy Now!" Someone that was on the show said that there was an enormous increase in voter registration for this race, and the majority of new registrations were for white males between the ages of 18-28 years of age. And I'm willing to bet that they did so just to vote for Arnold. Feh.