Obama Got Votes for Being Black and Young

[Greenday]

Instead of continuing to threadjack the gay presidential candidate thread, I figured it's past due to start this thread.

I find it hard to believe that anyone can honestly think no one voted for Obama just because he is black or young (relatively speaking). It's not a coincidence that we finally had a candidate that was black and much younger than any previous candidate and there was a noticeable increase in young voters and black voters.

[Kheldarson]

Considering I was at college at the time of the election, and doing student teaching including a course on government for seniors, I heard a lot of this. My school had a race problem anyway that kept flaring up. This didn't help :eye roll:

But whether it was the final determining factor or a statistically differentiating factor...eh, I don't know about that. I'd want some more exit polls and voting records for that one.

[HYHYBT]

There's a gay presidential candidate thread? How could I have missed that...

Anyway...

I'm sure some people did vote for him based on those things... but a lot would vote against him for the exact same reasons. How many old, white presidents have had such persistent denials that they're even citizens?

[BlaqueKatt]

we kinda already did have this thread back in 2008

[Andara Bledin]

Everybody did this thread back in 2008.

^-.-^

[lordlundar]

I never said that no one voted for Obama because he's black or (relatively) young. I said that you have no PROOF that it was the sole exclusive reason for the increase in voters. Show me clear, definitive proof that the exclusive reason for the increase of voters was because Obama is younger and/or that he's black and I'll shut up.

Yes, I firmly believe that people voted for Obama simply because he's black and/or relatively young. I also believe that people voted for him because he's a democrat, he promised sweeping changes in the federal government and various fields there with. I also believe people voted for him because the concept of Sarah Palin having any power as a VP was far too frightening for some people to comprehend. But I do try to even imply that the exclusive reason for an increase in voter turnout was his skin colour, because I cannot prove it.

[Boozy]

It's not a coincidence that we finally had a candidate that was black and much younger than any previous candidate and there was a noticeable increase in young voters and black voters.

Perhaps not a coincidence, but there's that old "correlation does not equal causation" problem again.

One could just as easily conclude that Obama's youth and/or race caused previously ignored demographics to sit up and take notice -- but what eventually drew them to vote for him was his personality or platform.

[Hyena Dandy]

I apologize if I was misinterpreted. I must not have made myself clear, which is totally my fault.

I was not saying that nobody VOTED for Obama because he was black. I was saying that he wasn't ELECTED because he was black.

[Andara Bledin]

I find it hard to believe that anyone can honestly think no one voted for Obama just because he is black or young (relatively speaking).

I find it unlikely that you would find anyone that honestly thinks that nobody voted for Obama because he was young and black.

Then again, there are people who voted for McCain because he was old and white.

However, I suspect that the two demographics mostly cancel each other out and are likely also much smaller than you appear to assume.

^-.-^

[FArchivist]

Instead of continuing to threadjack the gay presidential candidate thread, I figured it's past due to start this thread.

I find it hard to believe that anyone can honestly think no one voted for Obama just because he is black or young (relatively speaking). It's not a coincidence that we finally had a candidate that was black and much younger than any previous candidate and there was a noticeable increase in young voters and black voters.

1) No one stated that NO ONE voted for Obama because he was black/young in the previous thread.

2) The increase in young voters and black voters does not necessarily correlate with Obama's candidacy. Attempting to do so is use of the "correlation does not equal causation" fallacy.

If you want to prove that the increase and candidacy are linked, you would need to perform a study that showed the correlation.

[Hyena Dandy]

While I don't like FArchivist demanding a study for it, because I simply don't see how you could possibly perform one to his satisfaction, I do agree with his statement that correlation does not equal causation.

At least as far as the youth go, a lot of people where I am voted Obama because they just really hated George Bush (a popular sentiment amongst the youth)


Being young was a definite part, being black a part as well, but I don't think either of those was the deciding factor.

[Kheldarson]

Election studies tend to be a "look at the demographics of voters and voting trends in an area on a non-important year" vs. "demographics and trends on a big year". Non-important are years where just state officials or House of Representatives are being voted in, big year being presidential years.

So, for example, I read a study that released after the Bush vs. Gore debacle. The major argument was that if states had more voting machines Gore would have won. The author did a study in Ohio, one of the key states. He found that there was not a major difference in most towns on the number of voters and further, using the percentages of those who voted and how they voted, predicting the number of extra votes each candidate probably would've gotten, found that it didn't make a difference if the towns had more machines or not. And as the added cost of more machines wasn't worth it...

You'd probably find in a similar study on Obama's election that there's no real statistical difference in voting habits.

[Greenday]

Seeing as no one can even come up with one legit idea as to why in this election and none of the previous ones before this there was a noticeable increase in these two demographics, the theory that Obama received the increase in votes because he's young and black becomes pretty legit.

[Hyena Dandy]

Obama was one of the most heavily endorsed presidential candidates in recent memory, getting endorsements from, amongst others, Will.i.am, Lil Wayne, and Nas. Those are all black celebrities.

Those are all celebrities, and they all try to appeal to youth and black people.

There's a legitimate idea.

Also, Andy put forward the idea that Obama's heavy use of the internet in his campaign pushed the youth demographic (who use the internet) into voting.

There's another legitimate idea which has already been put forward in this thread.

And as I believe I've mentioned, George Bush was very unpopular amongst young people, who would naturally, therefore, gravitate to the other party.

Edit: Note, nobody has claimed that being young and black wasn't a part of it. What we have claimed was that it was not the ENTIRETY of it.

[Greenday]

Well, now that we finally seem to be in agreement that being black and young had something to do with his popularity which helped him win, I think we are on the same page.