The presidential hopefuls face a world that has changed drastically since Barack Obama’s first victory. To make sense of issues from the rise of the millennials to the growing dissatisfaction with elites, The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley A. Strassel spoke with two pollsters from different sides of the aisle—Peter D. Hart of Hart Research Associates and Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.

A changing world

MS. STRASSEL: The world looks a lot different than it did just eight years ago. Why don’t you talk about some of the biggest changes or trends you have seen since that 2008 election?

MR. MCINTURFF: Number one is the changing religiosity of the country. Very quickly the number of people who say they go to church once or more a week has dropped six or seven points after being stable for a very long time. The second thing is, the millennial generation is now important. Their views are becoming dominant views. And our country is now at its highest point since the 1880s with people in our country born out of the country.

MS. STRASSEL: When you talk about the millennials, what are they thinking? How are they voting?

MR. MCINTURFF: It’s not monolithic. When you look at 18- to 29-year-olds, everyone knows they voted for the president by 25 to 35 points. But part of that reason is because 18- to 29-year-olds are 45% African-American, Latino and Asian. They’re mirroring what’s happening below them, which is a majority of our new births are African-American, Asian and Latino. White 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Romney.