Bush turns off
youngest, oldest
voters

BY KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_repo ... 0052c.html

WASHINGTON - President Bush is getting failing grades from America's youngest and oldest voters - key groups he needs to rally to help him get his Social Security overhaul through Congress, a new poll showed yesterday.
Some 54% of Americans disapproved of Bush's job performance, while 45% said he's doing a good job. Most thought the country is headed in the wrong direction, The Associated Press poll found.

Bush got his worst marks from people 65 and older, though young adults age 18 to 29 were not far behind in their disdain.

"Not only is there panic among young people, but now we see there's panic among older voters, as well," said Hans Riemer of MTV partner Rock the Vote, which has aligned with the powerful advocacy group AARP in trying to squash Bush's proposal to revamp Social Security partly by allowing working Americans to invest some of their future payments in stocks and bonds.

The new poll wipes out any Bush bump from a month of high-profile events, including his inaugural and State of the Union speeches, and the rollout of his Social Security plan and proposed budget.

Even the Iraq elections did little to help the President's poll numbers. Only 42% of respondents approved of Bush's handling of the war, while 57% disapproved.

Bush's former campaign manager, who now heads the GOP, said the President is on solid ground.

"As the President has begun talking to the public about this first question of whether or not there is a problem and reform is needed, we see in poll after poll, the answer is a resounding yes," Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman wrote.

Without solid poll numbers, it will be hard to win support in Congress for Social Security changes, a White House official acknowledged

Well, if all these people are unsatisfied, why the hell did they give him another four years?

It was those few million extra evangelical christians that showed up in more numbers right along aside the increased turnout in younger voters - negating them.

It was won by *just* 2 precentage points, afterall.

How many young voters actually turned out for the election? I thought I read reports that despite the numerous efforts to get young voters out, there really wasn't much of an increase in percentage, unfortunately.

Fortunetly youth vote turnout was up more then 9 points from 2000, with 4.6 more youth votesrs showing up.

http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/Releas ... ut2004.pdf

Unfortunetly not up enough points to get rid of these momo's.

It's skewed somewhat. The youngest voters turned out in, I believe, a 1 or 2% greater number than 2000, however national turnout rose to 60 - 63% from 51 or 52% in 2000. So... 20% of 63 is larger than 20% of 53, you know? The youth vote didn't rise at much of a pace higher than the overall turnout, which rose nicely in its own right.