Sam Graham-Felson's February 2007 Nation article on the Barack Obama youth brigades makes for interesting reading in retrospect. At the time, Graham-Felson was on the magazine's "youth" beat, from which perch many a young writer has forecast many a burgeoning progressive youth movement that never emerged. The interesting twist here is that SG-F eventually went to work for Barack Obama and Obama's youth team actually did wrack up huge margins among young voters and bring them to the polls in big numbers.
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Youth Decay
05 Jan 2008 09:18 am
Comments (20)
Uh, "rack" up huge margins. This blog is wracked by malapropisms and misspelling. I'm usually able to overlook form for substance, but in this case . . .
Thinking about the youth vote, it's starting to look more and more that we're actually going to be re-running the '68 campaign.
Obama - Clean for Gene
Edwards - RFK
Clinton - The Hump
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And Obama supporters ought to be praying that Edwards continues to thrive. As long as Obama wins the youth vote as a bloc, he greatly benefits from having two candidate to split the rest of the electorate.
This is sad: There is Free Press in the US. Yet, US Press is Cheating the Voters. The Press says that there is no free press in 3rd world nations. BUT, there is FREE PRESS in the US.
Why is the Press not asking HRC these questions? Why?
- HRC: Will you pardon Norman Hsu if you become the President?
- HRC: What exactly are your policy accompishments in your years as a First Lady (AK and US) and Senator? Please, your Majesty, last minute co-sponsorship of another senator's bill is not right.
- HRC: What did you do during Vince Foster, Travelgate, Monicagate, Marc Rich, etc.
- HRC: Do you believe that Obama is not Muslim? If yes, then why are your supporters saying otherwise?
- HRC: What were your HUSBAND's accomplishment during 1988-2002 in AK? Your HUSBAND said on Rose (PBS) that these four years were key for his presidential run. We see no evidence of any accomplishments. Can you shed some light?
ETC.
Come one, Matt, is the US press scared that the Clinton Attack Machine will lose if you ask hard questions? Is US press wanting just access to White House, more tv shows, more paper columsn, etc. if Clinton wins.
This is sad: There is Free Press in the US. Yet, US Press is Cheating the Voters. The Press says that there is no free press in 3rd world nations. BUT, there is FREE PRESS in the US.
Why is the Press not asking HRC these questions? Why?
- HRC: Will you pardon Norman Hsu if you become the President?
- HRC: What exactly are your policy accompishments in your years as a First Lady (AK and US) and Senator? Please, your Majesty, last minute co-sponsorship of another senator's bill is not right.
- HRC: What did you do during Vince Foster, Travelgate, Monicagate, Marc Rich, etc.
- HRC: Do you believe that Obama is not Muslim? If yes, then why are your supporters saying otherwise?
- HRC: What were your HUSBAND's accomplishment during 1988-1992 in AK? Your HUSBAND said on Rose (PBS) that these four years were key for his presidential run. We see no evidence of any accomplishments. Can you shed some light?
ETC.
Come one, Matt, is the US press scared that the Clinton Attack Machine will lose if you ask hard questions? Is US press wanting just access to White House, more tv shows, more paper columsn, etc. if Clinton wins.
We try to stay on topic in comments on this blog, eorse.
Oh, you can now forget Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris.
John McCain, who completely won the Iowa caucuses in his own special way, has unveiled his celebrity supporter: Wilford Brimley.
Eat that, Huckabags!
http://www.yourconcord.com/primaryblog/mccains_answer_to_chuck
We try to stay on topic in comments on this blog, eorse.
While I agree that they are a much improved team and significantly better than I thought they were, I think it's quite a stretch to call the Lakers a championship contender.
I can't tell if eorse is a foreigner struggling with English or just plain vanilla-flavored stupid. Either way that's a bizarre post.
Has there been any reporting to suggest Obama supporters bussed in a lot of non-Iowans to vote in the caucuses?
Not only that, I heard they were illegal Muslim immigrants.
John McCain, who completely won the Iowa caucuses in his own special way, has unveiled his celebrity supporter: Wilford Brimley.
Ah, whatever. We already knew McCain would dominate the cranky geriatrics with chronic health problems demographic.
BTW, a friend of mine is attending an Obama event in New Hampshire this morning, and is e-mailing back photographs of the crowds. Huge, huge, HUGE!
"John McCain, who completely won the Iowa caucuses in his own special way, has unveiled his celebrity supporter: Wilford Brimley."
I had to go clicking on other stories on that blog to make sure it wasn't a parody site.
That's really fucking funny.
So Obama has the under 30 vote locked up, and it seem that Wilford will help McCain lock up the over 90 vote.
Well it has to be said, the oatmeal vote was there for the cinching.
Matt,
I go to the University of Chicago - the school at which Barack is still a professor - and while I cannot speak for the other Chicagoland universities, let me just say that the level of mobilization here is incredible.
Although I think Obama is genuinely popular, I don't think you can discount the importance of Iowa being a bus ride away from his personal home base. UChicago is not a big school when it comes to undergrads, but we've run dozens of bus trips to Iowa going all the way back to the beginning of last year.
So it is probably fair to say that, yes, a lot of Obama's youth support is coming from mobilizing his own machine, and not necessarily getting Iowans on his side out of the blue.
What will be interesting is how Barack does in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Frankly, Barack's power base here on the South Side is tied up in a number of factors, including, and this is very, very, very important, Obama's endorsement of Hizzoner the Younger in 2006's election. He definitely exists in a symbiotic relationship with Daley.
I think that if Obama hadn't endorsed Daley, the machine you see Obama extending out from Chicago wouldn't exist in its present form. Daley would still have won, but he definitely would have seen Barack withholding support as tacit support for the anti-Daley reformers. So he would have done his best to crush that possible threat.
Obviously, Prof. Obama is a nationwide phenomenon - but his advantage in Iowa *has* to owe something to its proximity to his political demesne.
Thanks so much for the backstory, Greg. Fascinating. Gail Collins may be rumor-mongering but at least there's a context. Anyway, I could care less -- go, Barack, go!
If the youth of America really are excited about Osama bin Obama it truly demonstrates the power of watching endless repeats of the Little Mermaid on dvd/video, not being able to add or subtract without a calculator, and being indocrinated from a young age that gay nuptials and recycling are really important issues.
Jozef, you forgot to add complaints about their crazy clothes and loud music that "is nothing but noise."
Jozef, are you saying it's wrong that after every one of my gay marriages ends every 16-months, I recycle my nuptials? I watched too much the Little Mermaid as a kid, so I never learned how to read, write or do rithmatic, so can only write my own vows once. But I need to have a lot of gay sex because then I'm naked and I can use my toes to add and subtract. I tried to divide with my toes once, but now I only have one pinky toe.
El Cid, I also thought you were joking. How tone-deaf can you be? I'm surprised that McCain doesn't desperately bring his 23-year-old daughter out more to make himself look young, considering that she's kinda (why is "kinda" in Firefox's spellcheck?) cute. You never hear about anyone who doesn't have a living will yet having the name "Wilford." The only reason I can even remember Brimley's name is from watching too much "Family Guy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69ujLvxLi0M
I guess between that and the Little Mermaid, it's amazing I'm literate enought to be able to comment on a blog.
"El Cid, I also thought you were joking. How tone-deaf can you be?"
Umm, that kinda came out wrong.
Comments closed January 19, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
In her Times column today, Gail Collins writes, "In a small state where newcomers on the honor system can register as local voters on the spot, it could be easy to turn a mass of out-of-state college students and volunteers into what looks like an uprising of Iowa youth." Very provisional and speculative language, and typical of Collins, but also hinting at some dirty tricks. Has there been any reporting to suggest Obama supporters bussed in a lot of non-Iowans to vote in the caucuses?
Posted by BryklynLibrul | January 5, 2008 9:51 AM