Earlier today some Democrat was on Fox News – I think it was Doug Schoen – and he basically said that seniors aren’t really interested in making any financial sacrifices so their children and grandchildren can have a brighter future. I thought it was kind of an odd thing to say, it certainly doesn’t pertain to most people I know.

Well, it looks like Schoen had it wrong. Hot Air highlighted a Rasmussen poll from a month or so ago that had some interesting findings. One of them is that the Democrats’ claims that Ryan would “throw grandma over a cliff” meme didn’t work. Ryan happens to be pretty popular with American seniors.

For even more counterintuitive results, look at Ryan’s standing among seniors.  Despite the attacks on Ryan over his budget plan, he’s easily the most liked of the short-listers among likely voters 65 years of age and over, with a 52/29 favorability rating.  His “very favorable” rating of 31% in the 65+ group is more than 10 points better than the other shortlisters in the Rasmussen survey (again, save Rice).  Jindal did well, too, with a 44/28, as did Pawlenty with a 40/30 and Portman at 37/26, but Ryan’s draw among seniors outpaced all of them.   Ryan has plenty of room to be defined in either direction with 35% of voters overall not having an opinion, but that’s only true of 20% of seniors — and Ryan already has a majority of them on his side.

Then there’s this.

Commenter Florah Duh reminds me that seniors actually liked Ryan’s plan best, according to a Gallup poll in 2011: (Read More)

Here’s something else that’s interesting. A recent Wisconsin poll (by PPP, not exactly a right-leaning outfit) found that with Ryan on the ticket Romney and Obama are in a dead heat in that state. The bump comes from young voters.

Though President Barack Obama has a 6-point lead in Wisconsin over Romney, Ryan narrows the gap to a statistical dead heat in the crucial state.

Here’s an even more surprising finding: the 42-year-old Ryan could help Romney win the youth vote, at least in Wisconsin.

PPP found that a Romney-Ryan ticket would actually win the 18-to-45 age group in Wisconsin over an Obama-Biden ticket. This is the first poll that has found that Ryan would have a substantial effect on the youth vote. (Read More)

In short, don’t listen to the Democrats on TV. They’re freaking out, just like Obama.

Oh, and did I mention that Romney raised over $2 million after the announcement by this afternoon?

H/T Charles B

Update: Nice Deb linked, and has a must-see video showing the sharp contrast between the two campaigns.

Update: Linked by Temple of MUT and the First Street Journal – thanks!