current event 4

http://blogs.wsj.com/capitaljournal/2009/10/19/political-wisdom-are-young-votes-checking-out-on-obama/

A quick tour around politics on the Web this Monday morning…
E.J. Dionne Jr., writing for the Washington Post and New Repulbic, lays out an issue that has been quietly worrying Democratic strategists for weeks: “Will the young and hopeful abandon the political playing field to older voters who are angry?” The question of whether young voters so important to Democrats last year now are complacent or turned-off is “the quiet crisis confronting President Obama and the Democrats. Left unattended, it could become a formidable obstacle for them in next year’s midterm elections.
Moreover, the sour mood that has gripped the nation’s politics could only further turn off the young. This means that the decision of Republican congressional leaders to put up a solid front of opposition to Obama could be highly functional for a party that would rather see younger, more progressive voters ignore Election Day.” Dionne further notes: “More than is often appreciated, the electoral revolution that brought Democrats to power was fueled by a younger generation with a distinctive philosophical outlook. Put starkly: If only Americans 45 and over had cast ballots in 2008, Barack Obama would not be president.”
Walter Shapiro of Politics Daily looks at one of the two hot races of the moment—the New Jersey governor’s race—and thinks Gov. Jon Corzine and his fellow Democrats may be pulling a rabbit out of a hat. “On Monday Joe Biden will appear with Corzine at a noontime rally in Edison and Barack Obama will swoop in to embrace the governor Wednesday afternoon in Hackensack. With billboards and posters featuring the president and the slogan “Keep It Going,” Corzine has been unabashed about trumpeting the Obama connection in a state which the Democrats carried by 600,000 votes last year.” The White House attention is easy to understand: “With Democrat Creigh Deeds falling increasingly behind in the open-seat Virginia governor’s race, Corzine has become the Obama team’s best hope for post-election bragging rights. (Governor’s races in odd-numbered years have shown little predictive power for future elections, but a double Democratic wipeout in New Jersey and Virginia would inevitably create a high-decibel ‘Obama in trouble’ chorus). In short, the better Corzine is doing, the more eager the White House is to lend its full prestige to guarantee victory.” And, Shapiro says, it may be working: “Corzine (whose unfavorable ratings have been over 50 percent in every Quinnipiac University poll since July) has fought his way back to even footing the old-fashioned way – by making (GOP opponent Chris Christie) almost as unpopular as he is.”
Meantime, Larry Thornberry of the American Spectator looks at figure who will be important to Republicans in next year’s mid-term elections, Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida. And he doesn’t like the sight: “Charlie Crist is trying to dress himself in the borrowed robes of a conservative. Even Macbeth, another ambitious guy, knew when the robes weren’t his. It’s a transparent scam. But will Florida Republican primary voters buy it? They’ve given Crist a pass on a lot of things over his career. But he’s asking them to buy some pretty outlandish things now.” And Thornberry actually thinks Florida conservatives aren’t buying it: Marco Rubio of Miami is “doing extremely well” raising money and exciting conservatives: “On top of his financial success, Rubio, a skilled and articulate campaigner who runs on conservative issues, continues to clean Crist’s clock in straw votes being taken by Republican groups, mostly county executive committees, across the state. In the latest, last week, members of the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee went for Rubio over Crist by a margin of 90-17. In 11 straw votes so far — eight county executive committees, two Republican women’s clubs, and the Florida Federation of College Republicans — Rubio is 11-0 and has bested Crist by a total of 495 to 58.”