Don’t worry about those uneducated blue-collar white voters. Forget about security moms, NASCAR dads and whatever other demographic the media invests this year. The 2008 election is all about age. According to the last two Washington Post-ABC News polls, Barack Obama is winning 63% of the 18-29 group, and 39% of voters 65 and older. For the kids, that’s 9 points better than Kerry got in ‘04 and 15 points better than Gore in ‘00. For the old timers, that’s 8 points worse than Kerry and 11 points worse than Gore. This is a MAJOR split, and unfortunately for Barack, it’s the seniors who have nothing better to do than vote. Interestingly, the old folks are the only group that’s concerned that McCain’s age will limit his ability to lead (dey know) — just not concerned enough to vote for the young negro whipper-snapper.
Needless to say, Barack badly needs to pick someone who can reassure your grandad that he’s ready to lead on day one and isn’t about to sell the country to the black panthers. Joe Biden is all over the news lately, and he would make a great Dick Cheney pick: someone who isn’t going to be the best liked VP ever, but who’s enough of a known brand that can provide proper supervision, especially on foreign policy (serious props to Saakashvili for requesting the veep contender’s Georgia visit – Misha knows how to play our country like scrabble).
My personal favorite remains Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. She’s an extremely popular and successful governor of a blood red state, who happens to wear her hair gray. Not only can she help lock up women and the old folks as a running mate, she would actually be a pretty incredible Vice President (that counts). I think Barack can afford to piss off Hillary for making Katy the historic broad of ‘08.
TAGS: 2000, 2004, Al Gore, Barack Obama, George Bush, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Jack Reed, Joe Biden, John Kerry, John McCain, Mikheil Saakashvili
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
