Newsweek-Alter:Generation Gap-Obama is trailing with older voters. Can he win them over?(Yes he can)

[Pirate Smile]

Mario Tama / Getty Images The Illinois senator rates high with young voters

Generation Gap
Obama is trailing with older voters. Can he win them over?

Apr 24, 2008 | Updated: 10:35 a.m. ET Apr 24, 2008

It was the "Grandma Primary." Barack Obama lost Pennsylvania mostly because white working-class women over 60 dominated the contest to an astonishing degree, and they backed Hillary Clinton by more than 2-1. The big question is what that means for November.
Obama carried men and younger and middle-aged voters, but that wasn't nearly enough.

Women made up an amazing 58 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania, a huge edge for Clinton right there and for any Democrat in the fall (the gender gap ain't going away). Whites comprised 80 percent of the electorate. Three quarters of voters earned under $100,000. More than half had no college degree, with that number moving much higher among seniors. Most important, 40 percent of the voters in Pennsylvania were over 60, which is not surprising considering that Pennsylvania trails only Florida as the oldest state in the union.

Obama gets this. "If you look at the numbers, our problem has less to do with white working-class voters with older voters." he told reporters Wednesday. "They are very loyal to Senator Clinton. And I think part of that is they've got a track record of voting for not just Senator Clinton but also her husband."
Obama did better among seniors in Pennsylvania, where he lost 59-41 percent, than in Ohio, where Hillary crushed him by 41 points in that age cohort. That 69-28 drubbing tells us almost everything we need to know about why Hillary won Ohio by 10 points on March 4.

-snip-
Could McCain's age really help him beat Obama in Pennsylvania? His problem is Social Security. McCain recently told The Wall Street Journal that he continues to support President Bush's idea for private accounts. Whatever one thinks of that proposal on the merits, it's a pitiful loser politically. Every place Bush visited in 2005 when he was stumping for his plan saw a decline in his popularity numbers when he left town. Just as Ronald Reagan got beat 98-0 on a Social Security bill in 1982, Bush's idea went nowhere. In fact, it never even came up for a vote.
When Social Security gets discussed this fall, McCain had better duck. If anything, with the market down, privatization is even less popular now than in 2005. All the Democratic candidate has to say is, "If Senator McCain's idea had been adopted, you would have lost a chunk of your retirement in the stock market."

This suggests that Obama can win back the senior vote more easily than, say, Hillary or McCain could win over the African-American vote. So Grandma and grandpa are likely to return home in November and vote Democratic, regardless of the nominee.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/133525

[Mme. Defarge]

1. Well, I'm 60

and he's got my vote. Does that count?

[Pirate Smile]

2. Hell yes. My Mom is 65 and he's got her vote too.

[Mme. Defarge]

4. He's also got the vote of my 60 year-old

best friend who voted Republican in the last 2 presidential elections.

[Oleladylib]

3. Hell no, not a chance...he's got some seasoning to do! Give him 4 years.

[Jensen]

5. My Mom is 86 and my Aunt is 78 voted for Obama and are ready & willing to hit the streets to knock

on door for Obama in Florida!

[democrattotheend]

6. My 78-year-old Grandma went door to door with me in Montgomery County, PA

Obama got 2 (maybe 3) senior votes from my family in PA on Tuesday, as well as 2 votes from my middle-aged aunt and uncle.

[Jensen]

7. We are in FL and we knew our votes did not count but we voted anyway...

But we can NOT wait to go door to door for the GE!
Congrats on your family also....WISE Family!