The results of the Iowa caucus are in: Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination race and Mike Huckabee won the Republican side.
The story's all over the Internet, but I found some interesting exit poll statistics on MSNBC on the breakdown of the Iowa Republican and Democratic caucus goers.
For instance:
| AGE | % Total (Democratic) | % Total (Republican) |
| 17-24 25-29 30-44 45-59 ... | 17 6 18 29 | 9 3 15 35 |
So it is not entirely true that young people are apathetic about politics. 23% of the Democratic and 14% of the Republican caucus goers are under 30. It's interesting how the turnout for the 25-29 is actually lower than the 17-24, though this is consistent across party lines.
| When did they decide whom to vote for? | % Total (Democratic) | % Total (Republican) |
| Just today In the last 3 days Sometime last week In the last month Before that | 11 9 7 24 49 | 17 13 10 31 28 |
27% of the Democrats and a whopping 40% of Republicans decided whom to support just in the last week before the caucus.
| Which issue is the most important? | % Total (Democratic) | % Total (Republican) |
| The economy The war in Iraq Healthcare Illegal immigration Terrorism | 35 35 27 - - | 26 17 - 33 21 |
Big difference here: the war in Iraq is a big issue for the Dems, whereas the Republicans are more concerned over illegal immigration.
Finally, two interesting observations are that:
• 60% of all Republicans who attended are born-again or evangelical Christian
• for 57% of the Democrats, this was their first caucus
Links: Democrat and Republican Exit Polls
So the fact that more democrats showed up to vote than republicans in a predominately blue state spells bad news for the republicans????
Guess what the same thing is going to happen in New Hampshire too...
I wish they would make the age ranges be equal in the number of years of age they represent; the stats would be more meaningful and I would have to do less math...
17-24 range = 8 years of people, @ 17% = 2.1 % per year represented,
25-29 = 5 yrs, @ 6% = 1.2
30- 44= 15 @ 18 = 1.2
45-59 = 15 @ 29 = 1.9
way to go young people!
i do realize people have every right to be of whatever faith they choose; i can't put that against them. nor can i put against huckabee that he's a minister. but promoting himself as such and promoting his own faith in place of political standing is what i'm against.
"Beyond this, candidates can be of any faith they choose and voters can consider this relevant-good, relevant-bad, or irrelevant, per their choosing." -- i agree; people have the right to believe what they want. "You ill-informed “separation” people want to remove freedom by disallowing candidates on the basis of faith." i'm not ill-informed. i just don't want someone telling me that their belief system is better than mine (not saying mine is any better than theirs).
Yeah, you and Alec Baldwin, right? He was leaving the country if GWB was re-elected... We're still waiting.
I'm not a Huckabee supporter, but people are free ot support him BECAUSE he is a Baptist minister or to reject him BECAUSE he is a Baptist minister. You people have a very confused notion of "separation of Church and state". The Constitution only provides that there will be no official state church, as there is in many countries. Beyond this, candidates can be of any faith they choose and voters can consider this relevant-good, relevant-bad, or irrelevant, per their choosing. That is what religious freedom is all about -- it's the freedom to believe or disbelieve whatever you want and that carries with it the ability to support or not support candidates based on their own beliefs. You ill-informed "separation" people want to remove freedom by disallowing candidates on the basis of faith. That isn't liberty ...