By John Cole. One thing that occurred to me after my visit to WVU is that I, like most DC writers, have repeated the idea that there's "unprecedented interest in this election" so many times that I've forgotten that there actually is unprecedented interest in this election and a lot more people -- especially young people and students -- are doing things like showing up at panel discussions to learn more about the campaign than I remember from the 2004 or 2000 cycles.
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The Blogging Panel Will Be Blogged
04 Apr 2008 02:52 pm
Comments (8)
completely unrelated tangent:
It is a travesty that Matt tries to fearmonger us about the overblown robot menace, when we can clearly see that pirates are a greater threat than robots or ninjas!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080404/wl_africa_afp/francesomaliapiracytravel
Back in 2004, Matt Yglesias informed us that the unique horribleness of the Bush administration was producing grass roots action at a level never seen before. As a result, Yglesias was invited to a fund-raising party for young people! (Probably a lot like the Dukakis fund-raising party I went to when I was young.) In the event, the American people turned out not to be as exercised by the unique horribleness of the Bush administration as Matt and his friends were, but never mind, this year it's different.
y81, actually, young people were exercised by the unique horribleness of the Bush administration, but, it turns out, just as much as everyone else was either a) exercised by or b) enamored of Bush's unique horribleness, so it all ended up as a wash.
On the other hand, this year: record turnout in the Iowa caucuses, something that hadn't even close to happened in 2004, so I'm tempted to say it is different this year, if we look at the numbers.
unprecedented interest in this election
Maybe, or maybe half of the college guys came to get an eyefull of Abbi and AMC. What a bummer that Cox was a no-show.
Tyro, time will tell. I predict a low turnout from a sour electorate, resulting in a narrow victory for a battered Obama, who is then swiftly Carterized and serves only one term, but then, I predicted that the nominees this year would be Edwards and Romney, so you shouldn't put much money on either Yglesias or me.
unprecedented interest in this election
Maybe, or perhaps half of the college guys came to get an eyefull of Abbi and AMC. What a bummer that Cox was a no-show.
I predict a low turnout from a sour electorate, resulting in a narrow victory for a battered Obama, who is then swiftly Carterized and serves only one term.
God, that's bleak. How about intead: a sour electorate that becomes enraged after Dem primary is over, until blowback about Bush administration atrocities surface again, McCain takes the heat (whether he deserves any of it or not), electorate becomes enraged again but this time at McCain, Obama is elected and starts to look like FDR, wins two terms.
Comments closed April 18, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Perhaps if we keep repeating the "myth" that young people are engaged politically in this cycle like no other, it might actually come true.
Truth be told, young people at least since I became one, have always been interested in policy and involved to varying degrees in public service.
What makes this election different from all others in recent memory? There are actually candidates worth getting excited over, even if you're not in the 1/2 of 1% that follows this stuff minute by minute!
Posted by DSG | April 4, 2008 3:57 PM