Thursday night at the Democratic convention, President Barack Obama could continue relentlessly assaulting Gov. Mitt Romney, put the best face on his own record, or offer a substantive vision for the future. But no matter what themes he emphasizes, we know his acceptance speech will target groups that propelled him to victory in 2008 and remain critical to his re-election, especially Hispanics, women and young people.
The good news for Mr. Obama is that he has maintained his 2008 margin among Hispanics. The bad news is that less than half (42%) of Hispanic respondents said they were "very interested" in November's election, according to an Aug. 20 NBC/WSJ/Telemundo poll.
The news is worse among women. Despite a summer of Democratic attacks on the GOP for waging a "war on women," the president's "unfavorable impression" rating among women is up 11 points since April to 50% unfavorable/46% favorable in this week's ABC/Washington Post poll.
This has depressed his overall favorable/unfavorable rating to 46%/49%, only slightly better than Mr. Romney's 43%/48%. The percentage of women with a "favorable impression" of Mr. Romney is up eight points since April.
Then there are voters ages 18 to 29, among Mr. Obama's most important supporters in 2008. The roughly 23.7 million "millennials" who voted in 2008 were 18% of the electorate, up 2.9 million voters over the previous presidential race. They gave Mr. Obama 66% to Sen. John McCain's 32%, according to exit polls. This margin of roughly eight million votes was a major chunk of Mr. Obama's overall edge of 9.6 million.
But youthful enthusiasm for Mr. Obama has waned. In October 2008, 78% of voters 18-29 told Gallup they would definitely vote that year. Now it's 58%.
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