Totally anecdotal but I thought maybe I would want to get involved in education so I took the intro to education class at my college (had to beg just to get in..most educe classes you cant take unless you commit to being an education major) and I can honestly say I have never been so frustrated by the students. We just did group projects the whole time and they literally were on par with projects we did in seventh grade. The kids were so dumb the conclusions reached rarely matched the evidence. Of course the teacher didn't really care the whole point of the classes was to understand that we had to be really really nice to our future students..if you regurgitated that point enough you got an a. Of course most intro classes are easy but this was on a whole new level. Granted it may not be necessary for most teachers to develop really good critical thinking skills but the professor made it very clear noons could.criticize teachers unless they were in the profession. I couldn't imagine working with these people..the people freaking out about the praxis exam were the best. The practice tests were basically all the easy questions from the act. But yea his looks really hateful and bitter so I better stop I really don't know what I'm talking about

Hell it really might be that simple but of course we have sample size issues. Trying to think of a counter example, Maybe Nixon over Humphrey?

This is really a good litmus test b/c of exactly that. Obama has a lot working against him but that type of thing is his main strength while Mitt does his Stuttering Stanley bit

Before my time, sadly. Probably if you went back before the invention of the TV, you would see a different trend. It does make a kind of sense, though, as the winner is going to generally be the one who more people "trust".

This is why I feel like Obama will just roll in this election. Nobody* who voted for Obama is going to vote for Romney. And Romney just doesn't inspire people on the right. If I had to make two predictions about the elections they would be that Obama wins and voting percentage is down.

* Obviously there will be random people who will go from Obama to Romney, but not in any statistically significant way

Not sadly dude. Being old is not all that fun (but even I missed Nixon).

Also the kids sometimes have to take public transportation for up two 2 hours each way. So that weeds out a ton. The head of the science & math charter school I volunteered at through my work said they had kids from 57 different zip codes. She also said most kids who applied got in somewhere (many apply to a lot of charter schools).

I understand that there will always be some crappy urban district that takes the troubled and unmotivated kids. But at least now the kids who really want to learn have a chance to get out of the chaos. There are a lot of intractable systemic problems in our inner-cities that aren't going away any time soon. But if we can at least create a realistic way out for kids with the drive to do it, I think that's a huge positive step.

Also middle-class urban parents who can't afford private school don't necessarily have to bolt to the suburbs when their kid turns 5 anymore. Which is a lot better for the community.

Lol no. A very significant number of people who voted Obama in 2008 are going to vote Romney in 2012. The only question is if enough do so. He's *MUCH* less popular than he was in 2008. I still think he's going to win. But by a much lower percentage than he did in 2008. And how do you get a lower percentage? By having people who voted for you in 08 not vote you in 2012.

He has lost significant support among non-college educated whites, especially men.

I will grant you that he's far more unpopular. That does not translate into votes for Romney. Perhaps if Obama was running against somebody like Paul, I could see. But Romney is the same as Obama in all the areas that Obama voters don't like Obama. Civil liberties, war, government transparency, cronyism to name a few. I think that more Obama supporters will just stay home, but that will be offset by the increased number of Republicans who stay home because Romney doesn't inspire them at all. The only thing that the Republicans have going for them in this election is hatred of Obama.

Yes I agree with this, but those votes do not automatically go to Romney. See my post above.

Warren Harding though

I think he was president. I couldn't name a single thing that he did, or when he served.

I'm guessing they pay a little more attention to whether they have a job or not or if their kid they just spent 100k on educating can get one either.

As some weird looking guy once said...."It's the economy, stupid!" forgot about that one conveniently, ehh?