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About That Crumbling 2008 Coalition of Support for Obama « Battleground Watch
One of the key tenets to the argument that polls surveying Democrat turnout higher than the 2008 levels is every poll shows some combination of either reduced enthusiasm or reduced support for Obama versus his 2008 performance on election day. This poll from the American Jewish Committee (hat-tip commenter perdogg) shows Obama with a substantial lead among Jewish voters 65 to 24. Great for the President, right? Unfortunately, that 41-point margin is substantially less than the 57-point margin (78 to 21) Obama had in 2008.
This type of drop among Obamas 2008 coalition is not limited to Jewish voters. I havent focused as much on national polls, but other groups like the youth vote are also leaving the Presidents side. In the CBS/New York Times national poll from Sep 14, Obama was leading among 18-29 year-olds 53 to 45, only an 8-point margin. His margin in 2008 was 34-point (66 to 32). As we have point out numerous times, in 2008 Obama did not meaningfully increase the youth turnout. He did, however, meaningfully persuade them to vote for him. Now their enthusiasm is dampened and their preferences have changed.
Dynamics like the ones above will make it nearly impossible for Obama to repeat, let alone exceed, his 2008 turnout advantage in the 2012 election. These are among the many reasons we find the polls over-sampling Democrats by wide margins to be unrealistic surveys and not accurate reflections of voter preferences today.
A new American Jewish Committee poll found 65 percent of Jews nationwide planning to vote for US President Barack Obama versus 24 percent for Mitt Romney, with another 10 percent undecided. The poll, conducted Sept. 6-17 among 1,040 Jewish voters nationwide, found Obama doing better than Romney among Jews of all religious backgrounds with the exception of Orthodox Jews, who favored the Republican nominee. Taking into account the polls margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, the polls overall finding regarding the state of the Jewish vote is similar to other recent polling from Gallup and elsewhere.
One of the key tenets to the argument that polls surveying Democrat turnout higher than the 2008 levels is every poll shows some combination of either reduced enthusiasm or reduced support for Obama versus his 2008 performance on election day. This poll from the American Jewish Committee (hat-tip commenter perdogg) shows Obama with a substantial lead among Jewish voters 65 to 24. Great for the President, right? Unfortunately, that 41-point margin is substantially less than the 57-point margin (78 to 21) Obama had in 2008.
This type of drop among Obamas 2008 coalition is not limited to Jewish voters. I havent focused as much on national polls, but other groups like the youth vote are also leaving the Presidents side. In the CBS/New York Times national poll from Sep 14, Obama was leading among 18-29 year-olds 53 to 45, only an 8-point margin. His margin in 2008 was 34-point (66 to 32). As we have point out numerous times, in 2008 Obama did not meaningfully increase the youth turnout. He did, however, meaningfully persuade them to vote for him. Now their enthusiasm is dampened and their preferences have changed.
Dynamics like the ones above will make it nearly impossible for Obama to repeat, let alone exceed, his 2008 turnout advantage in the 2012 election. These are among the many reasons we find the polls over-sampling Democrats by wide margins to be unrealistic surveys and not accurate reflections of voter preferences today.
A new American Jewish Committee poll found 65 percent of Jews nationwide planning to vote for US President Barack Obama versus 24 percent for Mitt Romney, with another 10 percent undecided. The poll, conducted Sept. 6-17 among 1,040 Jewish voters nationwide, found Obama doing better than Romney among Jews of all religious backgrounds with the exception of Orthodox Jews, who favored the Republican nominee. Taking into account the polls margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, the polls overall finding regarding the state of the Jewish vote is similar to other recent polling from Gallup and elsewhere.