The college students of 2014 are cooling on Obama, and their satisfaction with the country’s current political leadership is at a near record low. Hillary Clinton, however, is on the rise.
This according to an annual April study commissioned by the Panetta Institute, which asks college students questions—by phone interview or online survey—about things like terrorism fears or the Affordable Care Act. The results, released earlier this week, are revealing:
After Obama took office in 2009, 73 percent of college students were satisfied with the country’s political leadership. Now, that number is just 39 percent.
The nation’s credibility also appears in bad shape—73 percent of college students now believe the country is less respected by others than it was in the past.
This year’s survey seems to have only one clear winner: Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee frontrunner achieved almost universal recognition, being known by 98 percent of the 812 students polled. By contrast, the most recognized Republicans are Rand Paul (62 percent) and Jeb Bush (61 percent). In matchups against those two, Clinton fares well: As a percentage of those polled, she beats Paul 53 to 32 and Bush 58 to 26.
Also revealing: 69 percent believe the main problems of their generation will be national, with 30 percent saying international. In line with that sentiment, violation of personal privacy proved a greater concern than terrorism by a percentage of 60 to 38.
And while they’re not feeling great about the economy or the country, students still feel good about themselves: 70 percent report that they are very or fairly confident they will be able to find an “acceptable” job after graduation, just short of the survey’s all time high of 75 percent in 2005.
The full report has plenty more stats to bend one’s head around, and can be found here.