by Wyatt P. Trott

    It's no secret that seniors turn out to vote in big numbers.  Political candidates of all stripes work hard to court the 65 and older vote, and often times that means convincing seniors that their opponents will bring about the end of Western civilization if elected.  As evinced by the recent special election in New York's 26th congressional district, the future of Medicare is shaping up to be a potent issue for the 2012 race, and the seniors who rely on the popular program remain distrustful of any plans to amend it.
    The Trott Polling Firm conducted phone interviews with 1,002 registered voters aged 65 and older nationwide.  Our pollsters asked the seniors about plans to change Medicare - some real, some imagined.  The responses were almost uniformly negative:

Polling the same group of seniors, our pollsters gauged which issues gave them cause for concern:

Final Analysis: Seniors like Medicare as it stands and are highly resistent to any plans to expand it, dismantle it, or transform it into a retreat for Asian homosexuals.  Presidential candidates courting the senior vote would be wise to support Medicare in its current form, and instead focus on the pervasiveness of Spanish in American culture and the problems with young people these days.

Wyatt P. Trott is a veteran political pollster and the head of the Trott Polling Firm.