You’re Doin’ A Heck of A Job There, Mr. Bush!

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On the eve of the DE Republican Convention, we should note that it turns out that 7 years of the Worst.President.Ever. has the amazing side benefit of creating new, young Democratic voters. A new poll from Pew shows that the previous CW about Dems having a slight advantage among younger voters (18-29 year olds) may be shifting considerably. Younger voters ID themselves as Dems by a 58-33 margin (25 points), while in 2004 the margin was 51-40 (11 points).

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And it looks as though the last time there was such a big spread in young voter identification was when Nixon was President.

The First Debate: Education

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Attendees of the debate tonight between Democratic gubernatorial Jack Markell and John Carney on Education pretty much filled the lower space of the Grand and there were some folks who ventured up to the (cordoned off) area upstairs. Markell supporters were very visible – ranging from the kids outside with signs and cheers (having some fun with folks going into the building, I might add) to a fair number of attendees wearing their Markell pins. If I am judging reaction to applause lines correctly, though, there were plenty of Carney supporters in the house.

It was a very civilized event – the candidates certainly were friendly and gracious to each other. The format was very focused (I really liked this), the moderators kept it all moving (and the candidates themselves were good about sticking to the rules) and the audience was polite and engaged. This was the first time that I’ve seen either of these candidates in person and both did well in this format – although I kept getting the impression that Markell might have been happier moving around on the stage.