Millennials Uncertain Of Loyalty Toward Obama

Genna Schwartz (left) of the Ohio State University Student Democrats tried to hand out information about President Obama's Oct. 17 visit to Ohio State and was turned down by a young man. The Obamamania that gripped college campuses two years ago is largely gone.

Part I  

Part II 

STEVE INSKEEP, host: Young people powered the election of President Obama in 2008. The so-called millennial generation, between the ages of 18 and 30, voted in record numbers. And they didn't just vote. They gave time, money, and a sense of excitement to the campaign.

Now a Pew Research Center report shows that some millennials are questioning their support for the president. They're anxious about the economy. NPR's Joel Rose continues our series on generational politics.

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JOEL ROSE: It felt like 2008 all over again in Philadelphia this week. A DJ played a song by the Black Eyes Peas to warm up a crowd of about 500 students from local colleges. Obama campaign manager, Jim Messina, exhorted the crowd at the University of Pennsylvania to volunteer, to apply for internships, and of course, to vote.

JIM MESSINA: There's eight million registered voters who are 18 to 21 who weren't old enough to vote last time, who are going to cast their first vote, and they're going to do it for Barack Obama. Raise your hand if you're 18 to 21.

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ROSE: President Obama needs a lot of help from this demographic if he's going to win a second term. In 2008, millennials voted for Obama by a ratio of 2 to 1. That's the largest margin of victory within any age group since 1972, according to the Pew Research Center.

ALEC TYSON: My name is Alec Tyson. I'm a research associate at the Pew Research Center. I am a card-carrying millennial.

ROSE: Tyson, who was born in 1983, helped prepare a Pew report called Generational Politics. He says millennials are more ethnically diverse than other age groups. They're more likely than older voters to hold liberal views on social issues, and to express support for an activist government.

Millennials still give the President a higher job approval rating than other groups, at 49 percent. But Tyson says they're not as enamored of Mr. Obama as they used to be.

TYSON: Shortly after Obama took office, millennials expressed very positive emotions towards Obama. They felt inspired or hopeful by him. Two years later, more than two years later, there's a sign that they've become, to use their own word, disappointed.

ROSE: If you ask millennials to name the best president of their lifetimes, only 14 percent say Barack Obama. By far the most popular answer to that question, is actually this man.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.

ROSE: Bill Clinton's presidency left a lasting impression on millennials. According to Pew, 50 percent of them profess an affiliation with the Democratic Party, compared to just 34 percent who identify with the Republicans. Compared to older voters, millennials are more comfortable with immigration and interracial marriage, and more likely to say the country has gotten better since the 1960s. But in a development that may be ominous for Democrats, Alec Tyson at Pew, says fewer millennials say they're paying close attention to politics, now, than did in 2007.

TYSON: That's the key question for millennials in 2012: will they turn out at the same rates as they did in 2008. And some early signs suggest that enthusiasm is not as high in this current election as it was in 2008.

ROSE: That's at least in part, because there's no contested primary in the Democratic Party, as there was in 2007. Lily Catlin is a junior at Bryn Mawr College, and an Obama campaign volunteer.

LILY CATLIN: There's not as much attention, because there's no primary a going on. I mean, he still has a job to do. And he's still president. So he's not campaigning as much. And there's not as much of a frenzy about who will we choose; we already know.

ROSE: Catlin thinks millennials will turn out in big numbers next year. But Christopher Noble, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, isn't so sure.

CHRISTOPHER NOBLE: These last four years have got people jaded. I don't think that the turnout is going to be as great, I don't, unless there's some good, like, marketing going on. Because people are just dissatisfied. You know, that's the bottom line.

ROSE: The economic downturn has been difficult for most Americans. But according to the Pew Research Center, the unemployment rate increased most sharply among millennials, which may help explain their disappointment with the president.

At a coffee shop in Philadelphia's trendy Northern Liberties neighborhood, Brooks Bell is working on his laptop. Four years ago, Bell volunteered his time putting up Obama posters. Now the 30 year-old clothing designer isn't sure he'll vote at all.

BROOKS BELL: I mean it's a sad affair, I don't mean to, like, bring you down here, you know. But I honestly don't know anyone that really cares about politics right now. Most people I know are focusing on themselves, and trying figure how to get by in their day-to-day lives, you know?

ROSE: With the election just over a year away, there's still time for the millennials to rediscover the excitement they felt four years ago. But the Obama campaign has some serious work to do.

Joel Rose, NPR News, Philadelphia.

INSKEEP: And you can take a closer look at the generation gap and the 2012 election by visiting our website, .

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