While surfing the web yesterday, I noticed this piece over at Politico by Ben Adler.  It underlines that when Pennsylvania voters took the polls in the aftermath of “bitter-gate” and “Bosnia-gate,” Obama ended up not doing as well has he has in previous contests with youth voters, and Senator Clinton seems to have competed relatively well for their votes.  That’s something that might seem surprising to some.  Obama is often portrayed as having a lock on young voters as a demographic—indeed, Senator Clinton typically only wins the youth vote in states where she swept the popular vote by a substantial margin - not those where she won by 10 points or less, like Pennsylvania.  Moreover, by some accounts, Obama outspent Senator Clinton in Pennsylvania by a three-to-one margin.  

But it’s not so surprising to me.  Democratic media consultant Larry Ceisler is quoted in the piece as saying that he thinks Obama faring less well with youth voters “had to do with connection.”  That may well be right (and I’m guessing it is).  After all, as I noted earlier this year, youth voters will likely take to the polls with pocket-book issues on their minds, as shown by this recent ABC News/Facebook poll (survey question: “Which issue will ultimately determine which candidate you vote for?”)

Overwhelmingly, those young voters who participated agreed: Issues surrounding the economy will heavily affect who they cast their ballots for in the remaining primary contests and in November, and I’m betting that young voters, as such, are connecting less and less well to a guy who’s pushing for close to a trillion dollars in new spending over the course of his first term alone, angling for steep tax increases and proposing nothing that would allow them greater control over their retirement savings.

Of course, those young voters with whom Obama’s plans for the economy seem not to be resonating are not alone: This Rasmussen poll shows that Americans, in general, trust John McCain over Barack Obama with regard to the economy (and Iraq, for that matter).  That is definitely not what Obama and his team want to hear right now.

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