I live pretty close to Manchester, New Hampshire (where the primary debates were held last night) so yesterday I decided to stop by and see what was going on with all of the presidential campaigns. As you might imagine the place is crazy. You can't go anywhere without bumping into very active and vocal supporters for the candidates. I noticed a few very distinct trends in the volunteers for the various candidates:
Hillary Clinton: supporters almost universally old white women. The median age had to be at least 60. Supporters seemed to be unenthusiastic for the most part
Dennis Kucinich: Kucinich had some type of campaign event going on at a diner. I was hoping to see his hotty redhead wife but all I saw were aging hippie type supporters. A lot of "intellectual" looking people holding his signs.
Barack Obama: had more supporters than anybody else. almost entirely young people. looked mainly like college students, lots of non-white supporters. Very rabid supporters!
Mitt Romney: supporters mainly appeared to be upper-middle class men. Median age probably 40-ish. Seemed very confident in their candidate
Ron Paul: mainly younger supporters, some older folks mixed in. A good blend across socioeconomic groups. A few 9/11 "truthers" holding signs in his groups of supporters. Energetic supporters for the most part.
I didn't see any active supporters for McCain, Giuliani, Thompson, or Edwards. They also had few signs.
Hillary Clinton had WAY more signs posted than anyone else. Obama and Mitt Romney also had a lot posted. Romney seemed to have more signs posted in individual lawns than other candidates.
