GENERATION JONES
AND
THE 2008 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

September 2008

“JonesVote’08”  Video (5min. 56 seconds)

Discover why Generation Jones is increasingly being viewed as key to the ’08 Election in this brand new video, which features numerous top political figures discussing GenJones and this election (everyone who appears in this video is a frequent guest on major national TV political shows)

Some of the political journalists, politicians and political advisors who appear in this “JonesVote’08” video include:

David Brooks (New York Times)

Karen Tumulty (Time Magazine)

Dick Morris (Political Advisor)

Roland Martin (CNN)

Jeff Greenfield (CBS)

Michael Steele (Chairman, GOPAC)

Doyle McManus ( Los Angeles Times)

Chris Van Hollen  (Chairman, DCCC)

Stuart Rothenberg (Roll Call)

Karen Brown (CBS)

Clarence Page ( Chicago Tribune)

Michael Barone (U.S. News & World Report)

Juan Williams  (Fox News Channel)

Howard Wolfson (Political Advisor)

Susan Page ( USA Today)

Mel Martinez (U.S. Senator  [R-Florida])

Lynn Sweet ( Chicago Sun-Times)

Bill Press (Fox News Channel)

Carl Leubsdorf ( Dallas Morning News)

Al Sharpton (Activist, Minister)

A few quotes from this “JonesVote’08” video:

Howard Wolfson: “I think Generation Jonesers have the key swing vote in this election.”

Juan Williams: “There’s a key element here, in my mind, in terms of demographics, that is driving this election, and actually it has to do with younger voters identifying with the Barack Obama’s and with the Sarah Palin’s…and what again you see, across racial lines, is this Generation Jones effect.”

Dick Morris: “I deeply believe that generational politics is the fundamental way to understand political developments.”

(The video “JonesVote’08” is politically non-partisan)

Aug 4, 2008… New Obama birthday poll released today:

Nationwide, those who are exact same age as Obama
say they are GenJonesers, not Boomers or Xers

 

A new poll released today, of a nationally representative sample of 500 U.S. adults born in 1961—the same year Obama was born—shows that today’s 47 year olds clearly feel not like Boomers nor Gen Xers, but instead believe they belong to the heretofore lost generation in-between Boomers and Xers…Generation Jones. ThirdAge, a popular website for mid-lifers, commissioned the poll, in conjunction with Obama’s Aug. 4, 2008 birthday.  When respondents were asked which generation they believe they are a part of:  57% chose Generation Jones, while only 22% picked Baby Boomer, and only 21% said Generation X.  ThirdAge, a site that is known for prioritizing consumer insight about its audience, has used this insight to build one of the most popular mid-lifer websites, with over 500,000 unique visitors a month.  The underlying concept for the poll was that rather than focusing on expert opinion to determine the question of Obama’s generational identity, a very effective way of answering this question is to ask the actual people born in 1961 to self-identify their generation.


Question:

500 U.S. adults born in 1961 were asked:

“Do you consider yourself to be a member of the Baby Boom Generation, Generation X or a lost generation in-between (usually called Generation Jones)?”

  Results:

                                                         22% chose: Baby Boom Generation
                                                         57% chose: Generation Jones
                                                         21% chose: Generation X

ThirdAge commissioned this polling of a nationally representative sample of 500 U.S. adults born in 1961, conducted July 31- August 1, 2008. The polling was conducted by MarketTools, using TrueSample technology, which has recently emerged as a top U.S. polling firm, with a long list of Fortune500 company clients.

 Many Top Media Outlets, Blogs, Pollsters, and Websites have concluded that Barack Obama is not a Boomer or Xer, but is a part of Generation Jones.  Below are a few examples:

 

“Twilight of the Baby Boom”

by Jonathan Alter

Published in Feb. 11, 2008 Newsweek Magazine

Excerpt:

“It's not just that Obama has inspired young voters, who prefer him in large numbers. He also represents a new generation of leadership…In the case of boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—the whole frame is wrong. It's based on birthrates, not common cultural and political affinities… it's no surprise that Hillary Clinton (born 1947) would have a different generational identity from Barack Obama (born 1961). Late Boomers, dubbed "Generation Jones"... make up the largest share of the voter pie—26 percent…if we weren't convincing flower children (or anti-hippies, like George W. Bush), we weren't part of Generation X either. The Gen-Xers were too cynical. Instead we became the perennial swing voters, with residual '60s idealism mixed with the pragmatism and materialism of the '80s. Even as demographers concluded that generations are really 10 to 15 years, not 20, no one represented us.”

 

“In the Eye of the Beholder” 

by Jenny Lynn Bader  

Published in Feb. 17, 2008 Sunday New York Times (NYT graph below accompanied article)    


click to enlarge

Excerpt:

“While it’s clear boomers are under siege, it’s less clear who they are. The baby boom itself, a quantifiable event that certainly produced Mrs. Clinton in 1947, nevertheless has controversial boundaries… Neil Howe and William Strauss argue in their book “Generations” that the baby boom actually began in 1943, when servicemen started coming home…The generation-spotter Jonathan Pontell, on the other hand, argues the boom began in 1942 and ended in 1953. He places Mr. Obama in “Generation Jones”… What’s a candidate on a generational cusp to do?...”

 

“Obama and Generation Jones: It’s Our Turn To Lead”

By Bennett Kelley 

Published April 24, 2008 in The Huffington Post

“Obama is from Generation Jones, born in the shadow of fallen heroes, tempered by Watergate and disciplined by economic uncertainty... Senator Obama is the first Joneser to emerge as a serious candidate at the national level and just as Senator Clinton represents the Baby Boom era and Senator McCain the Ice Age, Obama's campaign embodies the Generation Jones zeitgeist... Historically, "the torch has passed" to a new generation when an energetic challenger faced a ruling generation that had simply lost its steam... There are tremors indicating such a shift is occurring today... Boomers are increasingly aware of the advancing Jonesers who have ascended into power in countries such as Australia , Austria , Canada , France , Germany and Mexico . President Bush has acknowledged that "Generation Jones is undeniably an important group. If we Baby Boomers don't lead, they're right behind us ready to." With Senator Obama, the Jonesers have found the moment and candidate to do just that.”

 

 “Clinton vs. Obama; Boomer vs. Joneser”

by Brent Green

Published April 29, 2008 in The Boomers Blog

Excerpt:

“As Jonathan Pontell and other influential observers see it, Generation Jones came of age in the 1970s, not the 1960s, and this generation's values differ from Boomers enough to merit new conceptualizations of generational identity…This is also why we need to think of Barack Obama (born 1961) as belonging to a different generational unit than Hilary Clinton (born 1947)… Barack Obama is a Joneser; Hilary Clinton is a Boomer.

 

“Baby Boomers Vs Gen Jones”

by Andy Barnett

Published July 13, 2008 in the Daily Kos

Excerpt:

“Those of us in Gen Jones are tired of being tarred with the Baby Boomer brush, which doesn't really apply…Gen Jones politicians include Barak Obama (1961)… Environmentalism, feminism, Vatican II, rock music, two paycheck families (are there any other kind?), the end of great power warfare, globalization and many other movements are all taken for granted by most Gen Jonesers, but barely existed for young Boomers…Politically, Jonesers are much more numerous than Boomers, with over four million of them per year for a decade. they are a key to the next election.”

 

 




Generation Jones in
Other Recent Elections

Generation Jones and the '06 U.S. election 

 

 

Fox News Channel Nov. 2, ‘06

  

MSNBC  Nov. 4, ‘06

Many media outlets covered the role of Generation Jones
in the 2006 U.S. Midterm Election, including:

National TV news networks (including Fox News Channel, MSNBC, etc.)
 
National radio news networks (including Metro Networks (airs on over 3000 radio stations);  CNN Radio Network (airs on over 2000 radio stations), USA Radio Network (airs on over 1500 U.S. radio stations), Talk Radio News Service (airs on over 300 U.S. radio stations)

Nationally syndicated radio newsmagazines (including America in the Morning (airs on over 400 radio stations)

Nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts (including The Jim Bohannon Show, The Lynne Breidenbach Show , The Armstrong Williams Show, etc.)

Top-ranked News/Talk radio stations (including WRKO, WBAL, etc.)

Regional radio networks in key election states (including Missouri Net (airs on over 65 Missouri radio stations), etc.)

For more on GenJones and the '06 U.S. election, click here

Prior to Nov. '06, Generation Jones had already emerged as a crucial voting segment in recent Western elections.  Below are examples from the '04 U.S. ,'05 UK , and '05 New Zealand elections:


In all three elections, Generation Jones:

  • Was widely recognized as pivotal voting segment
  • Had the highest percentage, among all generations,
    of "swing voters"
  • Was the largest generational slice of each electorate
    (GenJones was 28% of U.S. voters, 24% of U.K. voters,
    29% of New Zealand voters)
  • Was the focus of major interest by top national media
Generation Jones and the '04 U.S. election


Top pollster Mason-Dixon's '04 post-election study (on it's website above) found Jonesers' support for the GOP so massive that M-D concluded: "History will show it was one generation of voters-Generation Jones- that was the decisive vote that re-elected George W Bush".


After studying voter volatility rates from July through Oct. '04 with over 20,000 voters, pollster Scott Rasmussen concluded that Generation Jones women were the main swing voters, vacillating more than any other segment. Rasmussen put press release about GenJones women as swing voters on his site (above) 6 days before election day

 

The Polling Report ran a cover story immediately after the '04 election titled "Generation Jones: The Invisible Generation Elects a President". This long feature was then published on The Hotline, and many newspapers nationally (like The Denver Post above)

Generation Jones' role in the '04 election was discussed on many national TV and radio programs, including FOX News Channel's (above)discussion of Jonesers as key swing voters

For more on GenJones and the '04 U.S. election, click here
Generation Jones and
the '05 UK Election 		Generation Jones and
the '05 NZ Election


Top UK newspaper The Independent commissioned weekly polling of Jonesers, with a GenJones article each week leading up to the election. GenJones received so much major UK election media attention that The Times concluded that of all the new voting catchprases, Generation Jones was "our one freshly identified demographic with a future".


Generation Jones' role in the New Zealand election was widely considered to be pivotal by Kiwi pollsters and media (above image of Jonathan Pontell discussing Generation Jones on "Campbell Live"--the top New Zealand current affairs TV show (Kiwi equivalent of U.S. TV show "Meet The Press")

 

For more on GenJones and the '05 UK Election, click here For more on GenJones and the '05 NZ Election,
click here

 

 

 

 
© 2008 TJPG

We are currently working on a major
renovation of www.GenerationJones.com

Our new site will feature numerous sections covering the many recent cultural, political, and business developments with the Generation Jones movement