Obama's Struggle With the Older Generations

While Barack Obama is most popular with younger voters, he is having trouble winning over the older population. Obama has addressed the issue, but says, “Older voters are very loyal to Senator Clinton,” which he has claimed to be the problem accounting for his loss in Pennsylvania. Exit polls show that in Pennsylvania Obama won 54 percent of white men under age 45, while Clinton won 61 percent of the older white men. One of Obama’s senior advisers has discussed that there has been no “detailed polling or focus groups to help better understand the problem.” Age seems to be a huge factor in voting tendencies. Why is it that the older population seems to favor Clinton? Obama’s even bigger struggle is with the Hispanic population. Could this be due to the historical tension between African Americans and Hispanics? I have since thought that this has become less of an issue, but could this still be playing a role in why they are favoring Clinton? Or are there other reasons, such as this population simply favoring Clinton due to her ideas and plans for office? The reasons for the way in which people vote are interesting to me and I wonder what qualities or traits are most important. I sometimes find it hard to believe the polls and surveys that research this because it is hard to determine if people are stating the real reasons as to why they vote certain ways or whether they are just stating the reasons that sound politically correct.