Top Presidential candidates, and their current number of supporters on Facebook:
- Barack Obama, 174,650
- Hillary Clinton, 56,935
- Ron Paul, 45,906
- John Edwards, 26,255
- Mitt Romney, 23,155
- Fred Thompson, 19,311
- Dennis Kucinich, 18,587
- Mike Huckabee, 17,161
- McCain, 15,320
- Rudy, 13,043
The numbers are interesting. Obviously, this isn’t a scientific poll, but I think it’s useful as a straw poll of where young people come down. And Obama is dominating, with about three times the support of his next rival, Clinton. Ron Paul is close on her heels.
And then there’s a huge gap, with Edwards at the front. I’m somewhat surprised to learn that Romney is right behind him, and even more surprised that Fred Thompson is next on the list. No offense to him, but I’d never considered him a viable candidate. He just slightly nudged out Kucinich, who’s about as likely to win as Thompson in my mind. Rudy and McCain, who I’d thought would be front-runners, are way down at the bottom. (Technically, it’s not the bottom, but I left off people way down there… Poor Richardson, who I would vote for in a heartbeat, has 8,272 supporters.)
Of course, we know that young people have the least voters of any age demographic… But imagine if we changed that this election. I hope to.
None of this surprises me. Obama has youth going for him in a big way. He also has the advantage of race just as Clinton has of gender. I think a lot of young people are excited about a black and a woman running. Honestly I tend to think of them as candidates and race and gender are no big thing to me either way.
Ron Paul is a radical in a way. Granted he is right wing but he is still “out there” in a lot of ways. So he appeals to a certan rebel nature of college students. He’s not a safe candidate.
BTW Rudy and McCain have age against them in a Facebook contest. Plus they are anything but comforting. I’m not surprised they are low in that “poll.”