THE COMING GENERATIONAL BATTLE AT THE POLLS MAY NOT PLAY OUT AS EXPECTED

A new CNN poll has some less-than-spectacular Hillary Clinton numbers. I'll leave it to others to discuss the meaning of all that, though I'll point out that Clinton still has a commanding lead in the Democratic primary race and still beats every Republican challenger CNN polled her against.

But here's something that caught my eye: A lot of observers are wondering whether this will be a generational election, with an older, twentieth-century-rooted Democrat, Hillary Clinton, running against a much younger Republican, possibly Marco Rubio. How does that particular matchup play out now, according to CNN? Specifically, how do voters at either end of the age curve respond to the matchup?

Let's go to the numbers:



Overall, Clinton beats Rubio by 3 -- yes, he'd be a strong challenger against her. But among younger voters, the young guy loses to the older woman by 20 points. Among older voters, the young guy wins by 7.

I've pointed out that Rubio seems surprisingly popular among the elderly (something Hot Air's Allahpundit has also noticed) -- but Hillary Clinton's appeal to younger voters seems clear across the board in the CNN poll. With 18-34-year-old voters, she beats Jeb Bush by a whopping 67%-28% margin, beats Scott Walker 60%-37%, beats Ted Cruz (who's also quite young) 61%-33%, and even beats Rand Paul 55%-43% (despite his dudebro appeal). What's more , 18-34-year-old voters think Clinton represents the future rather than the past by a 64%-33% margin. (Senior citizens say she represents the past, 56%-40%.)

So, yes, this could be a generation battle -- with the older candidate winning the young and the younger candidate doing better among the old. That could be worrisome for Clinton -- older people are more likely to vote. But if she loses in 2016, it's not going to be because the young think she's a has-been.