Obama's Youth Mandate Far Greater Than JFK's

Barack Obama enters office with the biggest youth mandate in modern political history, Politico reports. He outpolled John McCain by 34 points—66% to 32%—among voters younger than 30. That's four times the margin that led John F. Kennedy to say, “The torch has been passed to a new generation.” It's the first time youths have voted so differently from their elders in postwar America.

A few other figures:

• Obama was the first Democrat to break 45% among young whites in 3 decades, with 54%.
• The youth vote made up 18% of the electorate in ’08, one point higher than the past three elections.
• About 53% of eligible youths voted, the highest since 1992.
• At 76%, Obama’s success with young Hispanics was 14 points higher than Kerry's in 2004.
• Obama took half of young working-class white men, 10 points ahead of any Democrat since the Reagan years.

(More Election 2008 stories.)