Wednesday, January 04, 2012

25,000 Turn Out for Obama in Iowa

Even though President Obama was unopposed in the Iowa Caucus, 25,000 Iowa Democrats turned out to vote for the president. While this was about 1/5 of the numbers that turned out in the Republican caucuses, it is significant in light of the sure thing that is President Obama’s re-nomination.

But this is the statistic that I am absolutely amazed at.

While 125,000 Republican Iowans turned out to vote in this highly contested caucus of the 7 Dwarves, this is well-shy of the number of Democrats who caucused in 2008: 239,000.

Almost half the number.

The trend is clear. Republicans are fairly unenthusiastic over the list of choices being offered them this time around. I have even heard this personally from dyed-in-the-wool Republican friends that still speak to me.

Clearly, the challenge to the eventual winner of the Republican nomination isn’t going to be persuading Republicans to vote for them. It will be persuading them even to show up to vote.

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