Kerry or Bush and why?

[Kristina]

This is what happens when I'm in Washington DC and/or deprived from my political science classes...I analyze political threads on CD:

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

The trend in this poll so far is interesting. Anyone care to offer a good explanation for why Kerry has a large margin here? (*cough*Kristina*cough*)

Like people have been saying, I definitely think that the age demographic factors in SIGNIFCANTLY.

Some other things that may possibly explain the numbers...

Geographic Bias See Exhibit A: Map of FIRST teams There definitely seems to be more teams from liberal leaning areas such as the NE region and California. The whole central area (Montana, Idaho, Utah) and Southern area (Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky) are regions that lean heavily Republican yet have very little FIRST representation and hence, not much posting on these boards.

Urban/Rural Bias Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing FIRST teams come from more urban/suburban areas than rural. I know there are rural teams, but just not as likely as in other areas. So if there are teams, say, from the South or Midwest (red leaning areas), they tend to be in closer proximity to major cities. Well, cities tend to be more liberal so that could possibly play a part.

Education Level Before I get negative rep, let me say flat out that I don't necessarily think Republicans are not smart people. That being said, college graduates and people with higher levels of education usually lean more liberal than conservative. This isn't based on my experience but rather what has been said in almost every political science class I've had. Seeing as how many FIRSTers are in college or are on the college path, I could see how this factors in.

Originally Posted by Peciv

I just spent the last two weeks in England and France... They don't hate us... They rather like us. We bring beaucoup (using a little French lingo there ) dinero into both of those countries through trade and travel.

While our politics may differ, they care much more about their football then political ideals.

I'm not even sure if you're joking or not...then again I never really understood USC Trojan humor (kidding!). From my own experience, this was probably half right. While we tend to have good relations with England (they were our ally), I didn't see quite as warm reception in other European nations. I personally saw "Go Home America" posters in France and when the French people come to UCLA, they buy so many John Kerry buttons from us. I have a lot of family in France too and they all love Kerry. I have friends studying in Italy this summer and they say there's so much anti-Bush graffiti and I know there was a huge protest when Bush came to speak in Ireland. I thought it was interesting that he was the first American president in a while that's been so disliked by the Irish because most Presidents go there for popularity boosts like Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton. I'm not saying that you have to be worldwide popular to be a good President of the United States (though I certainly think it can help) but I certainly wouldn't say that most of Europe likes us either.