The nationwide poll of 1,202 undergraduates revealed that 61 percent approve of Bush performance as president, compared to 53 percent of all voters.
College students, 81 percent of whom say they will definitely or probably vote in the 2004 elections, could tip the scales in next year presidential race, the survey results indicated.
⁉t sends the message that youth are up for grabs in 2004, †said Jonathan S. Chavez ‰5, who directed the survey for the IOP Student Advisory Committee (SAC).
⁉n the same way that politicians look at senior citizens or veterans or farmers as voting blocks, they have to have a similar perspective on younger voters, †said IOP Director Daniel R. Glickman, who served as secretary of agriculture from 1995 to 2001.
College students form n untapped reservoir for politicians and political parties to mine, †Glickman said.
Democratic college students slightly favored Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., over former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, 17 percent to 16 percent, among 2004 democratic presidential hopefuls.
Retired General Wesley K. Clark trailed with 9 percent, and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who is scheduled to visit Harvard on Monday, followed with 8 percent.
But Dean supporters, the survey concluded, are more involved in the campaign.
The survey found that 71 percent of Dean supporters were willing to volunteer for his campaign, compared to only 49 percent of Lieberman supporters.
⁒ight now Lieberman is doing well because of name recognition, †Chavez said.
But Lieberman spokesperson Jano G. Cabrera said that college students, having grown up during the Clinton-Gore years, are more likely to support Lieberman centrist policies on free trade, crime, and taxes.
The Dean campaign is eaching out very aggressively to college students across the country, †said spokesperson Garrett M. Graff ‰3, who noted that Dean spoke to more than 10,000 students in six states during a four day span in early October. Survey respondents expressed mounting frustration with the President Bush foreign policy, with 87 percent saying that embers of the Bush administration †have been iding some things †or ostly not telling the truth † about the situation in Iraq.
Still, students seem to admire Bush leadership ability.
⁔hey like the warrior but they don⁴ like the war, †Glickman said.
Although college students historically have supported Democratic candidates, neither party can take the youth vote for granted, Glickman said.
⁔he majority of college students elect politicians based on leadership skills, experience and authenticity, †said vice-president of the IOP-SAC Betsy A. Sykes ‰4, who oversaw the survey.
⁉ think we were more affected by 9/11 than the general population, and we don⁴ have any other war experience or world event with which to compare it, †Sykes said.
But Bush cannot take any post-September 11 popularity for granted as he moves into the 2004 election, Glickman said.
⁔he big failure is that politicians and political parties have largely ignored the student vote. They would rather use their resources to go after voters they know are going to show up at the polls, †Glickman said, noting that only 35 percent of college students cast ballots in the 2000 presidential race.
But Senator John Edwards (D-NC), who has courted the youth vote, has generated a tepid response from college voters, Chavez said.
⁊ohn Edwards has a plank on his platform that is youth-oriented —n ambitious ⁃ollege for Everyone †plan to supplement work-study grants for first-year students, ut it is not resonating yet, †Chavez said.
After Edwards visited the IOP to launch the MSNBC series ⁈ardball: Battle for the White House †on Oct. 13, ⁰eople were commenting more about the fact that he couldn⁴ answer what his favorite movie was than what he said about the issues, †Sykes said.
⁉n terms of how we evaluate our public officials, Harvard students are in line with the survey results, †Sykes said. ⁉ definitely don⁴ think it this hotbed of liberalism that people from the outside say it is. ‼p>Chavez said that Harvard is elf-selectively more liberal because it is an institution of the Northeast, †where left-of-center candidates tend to fare better. But Glickman said that Harvard students†opinions ⁷ould not deviate dramatically †from national norms.
⁅ven students at Harvard are more conservative than they were 30 years ago, †Glickman said.
Chavez, Sykes, and Guillermo A. Coronado ‰5, chair of the IOP-SAC projects committee, joined Glickman and Solomon in Washington yesterday to present their survey findings to political strategists and the national media.
Glickman and the students briefed political reporters at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor and answered questions at the National Press Club. Glickman and Sykes also taped an interview with Bob Oakes of National Public Radio, which will air this morning on WBUR 90.9 FM.
⁓tudents added color, legitimacy and authenticity to the conversation, †Sykes said.