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Economy concerns drove Baby Boomer vote
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Now that the political wonks have had their chance to sift through the presidential election results, a couple of trends have emerged -- Baby Boomers 50 and older favored Barack Obama by the slimmest of margins and the economy was the main issue that decided their vote.
Under the headline "The 50-Plus Vote: It Was the Economy, Stupid," the AARP Bulletin noted that voters ages 50 to 64 favored Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain, barely—50 to 49 percent, according to a survey of voters as they left the polls. Only voters 65 and older preferred McCain, by 53 to 45 percent.
What's interesting is the reasons for how the votes fell the way they did.
Said the bulletin: "When choosing the most important issue in exit polls, all age groups chose the economy for the top of the list. The percentage varied only from 62 to 64 percent. The polled voters as a whole also listed Iraq (10 percent), terrorism (9 percent), health care (9 percent) and energy (7 percent)."
U.S. News & World Report took the view that each voting age group, while agreeing it was the economy, stupid, parsed the issue to their own needs.
"For younger voters, it was jobs: for a person with a new family, it was housing; for boomers, it was their retirement and pensions and 401(k)s; and for older seniors, it was their children's and grandchildren's economic future," Susan MacManus, a professor of public administration and political science at the University of South Florida, said to USNews.com.
The October surprise, according to one analyst, actually occurred in September with the start of the meltdown of 401(k)s and other Wall Street investments.
Republican pollster Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group told the AARP Bulletin that polls showed very clearly that the market crash pushed many voters toward Obama. In September, registered voters ages 50 to 64 favored McCain over Obama by 48 to 45 percent, according to a Gallup poll.
Those 65 and older favored McCain 49 to 41 percent. But in October, when retirees and those nearing retirement assessed their savings statements, McCain’s support among those 50 and older dropped, Goeas told the bulletin.
