TEMPORARY PORTRAIT OF A GENERATION – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  There's a new study of the "millennial" generation.  Interesting stuff, but read with caution.  From ABC: 

Most of America's young adults are single, don't go to church and while half say they have no loyalty to a political party, when pushed they tend to swing further left politically than those before them.

A new Pew Research Center survey out Friday showed that half of America's young adults, ages 18 to 33, consider themselves political independents, identifying with neither party. But asked which way they lean politically, half of the so-called millennials say they lean toward the Democratic Party, the highest share for any age group over the last decade.

In addition, young adults seem to be turning away from their predecessors' proclivity for religion and marriage. Almost two-thirds don't classify themselves as "a religious person." And when it comes to tying the knot: Only about 1 in 4 millennials is married. Almost half of baby boomers were married at that age.

The new survey shows how the millennial adults are "forging a distinctive path into adulthood," said Paul Taylor, Pew's executive vice president and co-author of the report.

This can especially be seen when it comes to politics. Only 27 percent said they consider themselves Democrats and 17 percent said Republicans. The half of millennials who say they are independent is an increase from 38 percent back in 2004.

"It's not that they don't have strong opinions, political opinions, they do," Taylor said. "It's simply that they choose not to identify themselves with either political party."

The number of self-described independents is lower among their predecessors. Only 39 percent of those in Generation X said they were independents, along with 37 percent of the boomers and 32 percent of the Silent Generation.

Pew describes Gen Xers as those from age 34-49, boomers as 50-68 and the Silent Generation as those 69-86.

When the self-identified Democratic millennials are combined with the self-described independents who lean Democratic, half — 50 percent — of the millennials are Democrats or Democratic-leaning while 34 percent are Republicans or Republican-leaning.

COMMENT:  I wouldn't panic over this.  Churchill once said that, if you weren't a liberal at 20, you had to heart, and if you weren't a conservative at 30, you had no head.  Young people traditionally are more liberal than the nation, and many change.  The boomer generation, which we thought was so radical back in the 60s, turned out to be less so. 

Other polls show young people turning against Obama as they realize what he's done, and is doing.  They're not a lost cause.

March 9, 2014