Just days before Americans choose our next president, voting has concluded in the Weekly Reader Student Presidential Election Poll. And the nation’s students resoundingly say that Barack Obama will be the country’s next leader.
In the 14th Weekly Reader election survey, with more than 125,000 votes cast from kindergarten through 12th grade, the result was Obama 54.7% and John McCain 42.9% (with “other” candidates receiving 2.5% of the student vote). The Obama victory in the classroom electoral vote was even more resounding: The Democrat won 33 states and the District of Columbia, garnering 420 electoral votes, while McCain took 17 states and 118 electoral votes.
For the past 52 years, the results of the Weekly Reader poll have been consistently on target, with the student vote correctly predicting the next president in 12 out of 13 elections. The only time the kids were wrong was 1992, when they chose George H.W. Bush over Bill Clinton.
Obama was the victor in every grade — except grade 10, which chose McCain. The results were the tightest in the 11th grade, where Obama slid by with a 1.5% victory, followed by second grade, where Obama won by a margin of 1.8%. The widest spread appeared in the ninth grade, where Obama’s gigantic 85.6% beat McCain’s 12.4% — a whopping 73.2% margin!
Many poll-trackers credit the kids’ accuracy to telling the truth about parents who answer polls by saying they’re “undecided”. In truth, they’ve made up their minds and their decisions aren’t disguised over the supper table. No reason to appear independent to the family. And children are very likely to be following their parents’ lead.
Thanks, Votemaster
Can someone tell me how to write an intrade contract??? I want to write a contract that republicans will riot (because Im telling you they are gonna riot in toledo) when they lose next tuesday.
Also, in almost all Presidential elections, the taller candidate wins…
TRAITORS!
Odd how the 10th graders have somehow overridden the union-controlled, far-left agenda of their teachers. Maybe there’s an anomaly of independent thinking in that demographic sliver.
#4 contempt, “And how insightful to keep their reading and writing skills at a 3rd grade level… masterful.”
It’s much harder to “indoctrinate” literate people…
THey also picked John Kerry and Al Gore. Funny how this poll always picks Democrats.
#6 Paddy-O
>>It’s much harder to “indoctrinate” literate people.
Very true. I am wondering, as #5 Montanaguy points out, how did the 10th grade slip through?
It looks like the next level of indoctrinators found in our colleges and universities will have to take over.
You think this is bad, check out the basis for Obama’s ‘Second Bill of Rights.’
http://worldpolicy.org/projects/globalrights/econrights/fdr-econbill.html
Right to a job, housing, medical care? And I’m sure they don’t care about your ability to pay, they’ll just take the money from someone they don’t like.
And we have a special camp for you if you don’t like it, comrade.
#6 paddy-o
You are quite wrong about indoctrination. It’s quite well known how you do this. Ask yourself how smart people get into a cult. As soon as you get someone to either believe two opposing concepts as true or if you can get them to wait for understanding of a concept that doesn’t seem right on it’s surface, then you get indoctrination. All it takes is a sense that the information is coming from an authority on a subject.
Literacy is not a shield. Sound understanding of universal principles and pursuit of good character is a shield.
The Obama Children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH-2Fwx5RU0
#9 “Right to a job, housing, medical care? And I’m sure they don’t care about your ability to pay, they’ll just take the money from someone they don’t like.”
The beginning of communism. You should listen to a radio interview he did a while back where he said he wants to undo what the Founding Fathers put together…
I have a real fear that with that type of traitorous talk from Obama there will be a lot more attempts on his life. I feel sorry for Michelle…
[edit: see comments guide]
#12,
You sound like a pig right before you slaughter it;)
Also, of all the candidates running, the one with the most communist tendencies is Palin, as she socalized Alaskas oil profits and spread the wealth around alaska. So if you are afraid of communism and spreading the wealth around, you HAVE to vote for Obama. Because palin did that in just the last few years. Oh, she also has that socalist pipe line project that she worked on. That bitch made the poor wittle oil companies pay for it rather than the people of Alaska.
Funny how certain posters jump at the chance to blame schools.
And I thought ‘personal responsibility’ was a hallmark of the right.
#15 – “Also, of all the candidates running, the one with the most communist tendencies is Palin, as she socalized Alaskas oil profits and spread the wealth around alaska.”
So, how do you allocate the profits from resources retrieved from public land? Do you think she should have sold all the land and mineral rights to BP or Standard Oil? How exactly did ‘she’ socialize the oil profits? The resources were already on public land, did she change that?
#16 “And I thought ‘personal responsibility’ was a hallmark of the right.”
As any rational person knows. Responsibility requires control.
#10 “Literacy is not a shield. Sound understanding of universal principles and pursuit of good character is a shield.”
If one isn’t literate, learning “universal principles” is nigh impossible.
Funny how certain posters cover their ears and eyes to the fact that the government controls the curriculum and unsurprisingly our school system continues to pump out entire generations who are taught to believe the government is there to be their mother hen.
Interesting. Way back when I was in 8th grade, during the Ford/Carter election, our history teacher, who was young, Jewish and obviously rather liberal, polled the class. Out of about 30 students, I was the only one to predict that Carter would win. And this was in public school in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, AND in the Junior high school on the “wrong side of the tracks”.
Now, as for Palin and the oil profits. I really haven’t read much about this, but Alaska taxing the oil companies and distributing the wealth to the citizens was going on long, long before Palin was elected. We covered it in an economics class back in 1984 or so. One might add that Alaska has traditionally been one of the states with the largest federal money spent vs taxes paid to Washington for more or less ever. Subsidized air service, a federally (until recently) owned railroad, and so forth. No surprise. You have to entice folks to live in a place like that. North Dakota and Montana are close behind.
#7 won the thread, the rest of you are just jerking off.
Kids always gravitate towards the liberal candidate because being conservative is perceived as being old. While not entirely wrong, it shows what children really care about: How they’re viewed by their peers.
Ed, those pollsters you reference clearly were abused as children… just as I abuse the editors around here.
#16 Olo Baggins of Bywater
>>Funny how certain posters jump at the chance to blame schools.
Actually, the parents are to blame for allowing their children to endure such brainwashing. But since the public school systems have taken over the job as parent, you go with that.
I, like, totally trust the Weekly Reader vote counting process.
Kids, it’s not that kind of camp.
My daughter’s middle school’s ‘mock’ election elected McCain. I live in a predominately Republican area so it was not surprising. I believe from this that it is not the school’s agenda but more the influence of the parents and as well as peer pressure.
From my observation it seemed that the McCain supporters at her school were more vocal and opinionated than the Obama supporters. Since there were more McCain supporters at the school they tended to feel secure in berating the children that did not support McCain.
#22 James Hill, “Kids always gravitate towards the liberal candidate”
“Any man who is under 30 and is not a Liberal has no heart; and any man who is over 30 and not a Conservative has no brains.”
#12 ……that type of traitorous talk from Obama
I’ve often wondered how that works, when and if he becomes president does he stop being a traitor and you begin? Or is there some deeper level of patriotism and treachery that overrides being elected by the people?
As you (presumably) won’t love America anymore will you be leaving? Probably best to leave the lights on I get the impression that quite a few people will be staying.
#22 “Kids always gravitate towards the liberal candidate because being conservative is perceived as being old.”
Back to reading comprehension 101 there, sport. Let’s review, shall we?
“For the past 52 years, the results of the Weekly Reader poll have been consistently on target, with the student vote correctly predicting the next president in 12 out of 13 elections. The only time the kids were wrong was 1992, when they chose George H.W. Bush over Bill Clinton.”
This means that the kids accurately predicted Nixon beating Humphrey in ’68 and McGovern in ’72. Was Nixon more liberal than those two? Was Bush Senior more liberal than Clinton?
Take your time. Don’t hurt yourself trying to think suddenly. Best not to start doing something abruptly that you haven’t been doing for a while.
and #26 Paddy O’Furniture… judging from the brainless and stupid things the “conservatives” have been doing the past 8 years, you might want to revisit that statement… but that would require significant intellectual effort.
#28 “judging from the brainless and stupid things the “conservatives” have been doing the past 8 years, you might want to revisit that statement…”
Why, the statement doesn’t say that all conservatives have brains. Remember, actually being able to comprehend what one reads is important.
You probably didn’t do well on test questions that started, “If Bill is taller than Frank and,…”
And we should definitely care about this, because we all know that kids are very wise in their decision-making and pay much more attention to substance than style.
#29 Trollish behavior duly notified. Thanks for playing.
#31
I can always tell when a person responds to logical points with ad hominem…