I'm plenty weary of slicing and dicing the statistics of the last election but one from today's post on Nate Cohn's "electionate" blog for The New Republic nonetheless grabbed my attention:
"Romney actually won voters over age 30 by 2 points. But they were overwhelmed by Obama’s decisive 24-point victory among 18-29 year old voters"
The piece was titled "Rand Paul Is Not the Answer to Republicans' Youth Problem." Maybe so, maybe not. What I like about the Pauls, father and son, is that they actually stand for something kinda coherent. But the breakdown of voters by age group, while not exactly a bolt from the blue, was impressive by the 24-pointness of the gap.
As a generalization, I've always been told that most voters form a partisan identity by early adulthood and, for most, it lasts a lifetime.