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At several points over the last year–gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, a senate race in Massachusetts–President Obama and Democratic National Committee tried to excite the 2008 Obama voters, and largely failed. In each case, the independent vote shifted towards Republicans by significant margins. Obama also faces a serious enthusiasm gap going into the 2010 elections. As Gallup reported in March:
There are significant differences in enthusiasm by party, with an 18-point “very enthusiastic” gap between Republicans and Republican-leaning independents on the one hand, and Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents on the other.
Gallup also found an enthusiasm gap by age, which is a bad sign for Obama who pulled a huge number of young people to the polls in 2008. “Twenty percent of registered voters aged 18 to 29 say they are very enthusiastic about voting this November. That compares with 31% to 39% of older age groups who are very enthusiastic,” Gallup found.