Baby Boomers Turning Their Backs on Obama

Potentially big trouble for President Obama and the Democrats, writes Doyle McManus: They're losing the baby boomers. Polling shows the over-50 set "leaning increasingly Republican," even though they generally voted for Obama in 2008 and for congressional Democrats in 2006. Assuming they hold, the defections will likely hurt not only in the midterms but beyond.

"The baby boom generation appears to be growing more conservative as it ages," writes McManus at the Los Angeles Times. This leaves Democrats with two options: Pay more attention to "aging voters' fears" about health care, taxes, and the deficit. "Some are trying to do that now. The other is to rely on the passage of time—to wait for an influx of younger people and minority voters to change the electorate in their direction. That might work, but not by this November." (More President Obama stories.)