One of Many

Tim Pawlenty notes an important electoral trend:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty today said the big turnout by young people for Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa's Democratic caucuses on Thursday should be a warning to Republicans.

The Republican governor said on his weekly radio show that younger voters were clearly more enthusiastic about Obama, who won the first contest of the 2008 campaign, than any other candidate.

"To be blunt about it and candid about it, I don't think the Republicans currently have somebody who is as appealing to younger voters... as Barack Obama is at the moment," Pawlenty said, "but perhaps that can evolve during the campaign."

There was a lot of data from the 2006 elections which showed the same trend. Young people oppose wars, that seems to be the simple generalization to learn from the last fifty years of American politicking.

The Iraq War has thrown a huge amount of young people into the Democratic Party, and it's clear the Iraq War reversed all the gains Republicans had been making among young people before 2004.

Not to continue to rain on the parade, but Pawlenty didn't mention the really bad news from these early caucuses and primaries. Independants are voting in huge numbers for Barack Obama and the Democrats are attracting more voters than the GOP.

This puts the Republican nominee, no matter who it is, well behind Obama at the start of the campaign season. There just isn't much good news at all right now for the GOP.