I have read so many great informative, thoughtful and important diaries that come and go within a 24 hour cycle.  I read so many comments in blogged information where comments such as "this has already been done" or "old news" etc....

So the question that I have to ask is this:

When does a diary or a story become old news?

This is my first diary, so bear with me if it sucks.  Some background info so this all makes sense:  I just graduated from high school, and am starting at Tufts University in a few weeks (shit is it already that soon?).  In my glory days in high school, I was el presidente of our Young Dems chapter, and was also de facto commander of our Students for Obama group.  I used organizing techniques I picked up spending more than half of last summer volunteering 35 hours a week at the national headquarters of John Edwards for Prez, so my operation was very facebook-obsessed high schooler friendly.  I organized massive voter registration efforts in the months before the NC primary, and I think all told we registered about 150 people at my school, mostly 17 year olds who would be 18 by November who didn't know they were qualified to vote.  I organized a senior skip half-day when the Arcade Fire played a rally in town, and even a few teachers showed up.  I like to think that I did my part in helping deliver NC for Obama.   But this is all past, and now I lead you to the real meat of first ever diary, after the jump!

Yesterday John McCain announced his Higher Education Policy in a press release. Took him long enough.

Did he just wake up yesterday and realize that there is a huge number of young voters in this country who might be interested in his plans for them?

Recently I have been doing research on issues of interest to the under-30 voter in the upcoming presidential election. This included looking at Barack Obama and John McCain’s campaign proposals as well as their voting records in the Senate.

Higher Education (and how to pay for it) is one of those issues.

An April 2008 survey of American college students showed that half of them worry about having "too much student loan debt". And that’s a 30% increase since 2007. The economy and stingy financial aid policies are taking their toll on everyone.

So, the media keeps polling, and reporting on these polls, and pushing the line "Why isn't Obama further ahead?" as some sort of bizarre echo of the old "experience" argument. Meanwhile a full 72% of media coverage given to Obama is negative, compared to just 57% negative reporting on McCain.

This is despite the fact that there's literally no positive news coming out of the McCain campaign, and the only newsworthy things the presumptive Republican nominee does are along the lines of "How many of you are tired of four dollars a buck a guh a four dollars a gallon..." Meanwhile the negative Obama coverage is editorial in nature.

In short, the media is pushing a horse race, and this seems to be reflected in the polls. But is it really?

More after the bump.

In "McCain takes lead on YouTube hits", Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times, in a feat as amazing as squeezing raindrops from a rock, concludes from the number of hits on McCain's YouTube channel that McCain has "figured out the younger generation just fine." Dinan's article echoes what's been chattered about on cable news coverage of McCain's "Celeb" ad--that the ad's YouTube popularity is allegedly evidence that younger voters are "tuning in" to John McCain:

Mr. McCain has pumped out a series of brutal yet entertaining attack ads and Web videos mocking the press and Mr. Obama, and the combination of wit and insult has pushed his YouTube channel to the sixth most watched on the site this week. Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama's channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote.

That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain's YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video

Dinan admits that Obama's YouTube channel still dominates with 51 million views, but states that McCain is "catching up" with 4.1 million hits.

Equating YouTube hits with candidate popularity or relevance is obviously a flawed calculus which is easily embraced by those eager to pump out a "tech in 2008" story. Yes, McCain's two most recent ads - "Celeb" and "The One" -- have indeed been YouTube hits. "Celeb" boasts 1.9 million hits, and "The One" has been viewed some 1.1 million times.

Yet, while McCain's "Celeb" ad and "The One" ad have received over a million hits each, those are the only two McCain ads to have crossed that threshold. All of McCain's other ads are lucky to break 300,000 hits. In contrast, Obama's ads almost universally break the 1 million hit barrier, with his race speech having almost 5 million hits.

But the hits are not what's important. Just because you slow to look at a car wreck doesn't mean you love the carnage of the accident. People are looking at the "Celeb" and "The One" ads out of curiosity, and not because youth voters can be wooed by Britney Spears and Paris Hilton references.

To disprove Dinan's entire article, one need only look at how YouTube users have rated McCain's ads. Sure, people are flocking to McCain's channel these last couple of weeks, but both ads barely garner a two-star rating (on a five-star scale). Indeed, most of McCain's ads receive less three stars or less. Obama's ads all have either four or five star ratings.

So, in short, people are flocking to see the McCain ads for the same reason people flocked to see Paris's sex tape---some things are so bad, you can't help but look.

Need more evidence that McCain isn't making any inroads with the YouTube crowd? A recent Democracy Corps poll reinforces the fact that the youth vote is Obama's--and Obama's alone:

The most recent national survey of young voters conducted by Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner finds that the last six weeks have not dulled young people’s support for Barack Obama, despite the inauguration of a Republican attack machine. The new research finds the same convincing margin (27 points) as last month.

And really, when Paris Hilton's ad---which says McCain is so old he remembers when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket -- already has almost 6.4 million hits and has received rave reviews, any claim that McCain nets a positive out of this is just absurd.

Those seeking to gauge candidate support among the "kids" are best served not by simply adding up YouTube view counts, but by looking at what really counts--how they are showing their support for a candidate, both on and offline.  Who are they organizing for on college campus? Are they buying up Obama shirts or McCain shirts? Are they dipping into their Ramen noodle budget to donate to Republicans or Democrats? Are they getting up early on a Saturday morning to attend an Obama rally or a McCain Townhall?  Those are hard indicators of which candidate best relates to the youth of this nation. And all indicators are that McCain, even with his new snarky ads, just isn't cutting it.

This has to be the cutest thing I've ever did see. 4 intrepid college Republicans are traveling the country trying to find viable red districts and candidates and then they are blogging and YouTubing about them. That said, while I heard the name and expected a blank page ;), I thought things might on the face have a bit more positive spin from them. That doesn't seem to be the case...

Hunting for Red November?
Where oh where have my Red states gone?

More below the fold.

The Democratic Youth Strategy Council has concluded detailed analysis of 34 key primary states which had consistent exit poll data available. In our analysis, one thing was clear: Senator Obama does not have a significant problem with white-working class voters. In fact, despite repeated media narratives to the contrary, Barack Obama has a serious challenge with only one voting bloc, older voters. Senator Obama does not have a problem winning white voters, but he does have difficulty winning older white voters. He has no problem winning lower-income voters, but he does have a problem winning older lower-income voters.

While younger voters in every category (white, Latino, Jewish, low-income) are flocking to the Obama campaign, he is struggling with older voters in almost every one of these groups.  Luckily, there is a way the Obama campaign can use the energy of it’s young supporters to close the generational divide...

There's been a lot written about the so called "enthusiasm gap" between Obama and McCain.  We've also heard a bunch more about the youth vote and how the Obama campaign is crushing the numbers on this front.  

Well, here's some more evidence of how bad it is with the young folks for McCain.  On the Facebook.com politician pages Barack Obama leads John McCain 1.2 million to 180 thousand!  That's more than 6x the number of supporters.  And if the number of college students out for our local office opening is any indication, they actually will show up and vote this year.  

Image below the fold.

I don't know about you, but this is all I hear from the pundits. Occasionally one will speak up for young people in this country, explaining that they're not all a bunch of hooligans, and that they do seem really, really, awfully excited to vote this year. Oh, and that they came out to the primaries in pretty big numbers, right?

But then all the rest of the talking heads at the table burst into laughter, and one usually makes some inane remark about "kids" voting when 1)pigs fly, 2)hell freezes over, or 3)the Cubs win the World Series.

Well, as EJ Dionne points out todayin his Post column, the Cubs might actually win the Series...and young people just might tip this election:

Young voters are the talk of the electorate this year, yet our participation is often misunderstood.  Rising youth turnout is not solely the result of Senator Obama's good looks and message of hope and change.  It is the result of years of work by over a dozen youth organizations (beyond Rock the Vote and other celebrity vehicles) working in the field to engage young voters, establish best practices, and teach the media the true story about the youth vote.

It is for the most part thankless, but important, work that is underfunded and often overlooked.

Hello young Kossacks (Kossacks Under 35 . . . ?)

I'd like to invite you to join a new progressive blog community dedicated to young voters, young candidates, and youth issues: Future Majority.

Getting college kids to vote can be a real bitch.  Just like with everything else, it takes some elbow grease to overcome the inherent obstacles involved.  With any luck, this year will be easier than most but I thought I would offer a few tips for increasing the turnout in your area.

College kids move around a lot.  Nearly every freshman moves into a residence hall, frequently from outside the area, and nearly every sophomore moves off campus.  The vagaries of roommate and housing situations take care of the rest right up to the people who have graduated and moved away.  In addition to making voter rolls near universities notoriously unreliable, actually reaching these people to get them registered and to the polls can just plain suck.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

The GOP strategy in the last several elections has been to suppress voting in those demographic groups in which Democrats have a distinct advantage.  Veiled in terms of their attempts to eliminate voter fraud, this effort has amounted to blatant disenfranchisement of citizens; a most cynical means to achieving a political objective.  In the America that they like to talk about, with all its freedom and justice for all, the over-arching goal should always be inclusiveness and the desire to increase participation.  One way to accomplish this would be to lower the voting age to seventeen, although it is likely that such an action would meet with strong opposition for reasons that I will elaborate on below.

Young people did not trust Hillary Clinton, & by huge numbers did not vote for her. Young people do not trust John McCain, & by huge numbers will not vote of McCain in November. (Or, rather, Hillary Clinton could not relate to young people. & she lost. John McCain will not be able to relate to young voters, & will lose in November.)

On the other hand, young people overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama in the Democratic Primaries & Caucuses, & will stick with him through the general elections. That was the conclusion of a study conducted by Harvard's Institute of Politics, the findings of which were organization published in April of this year.

Manchester, Tennessee, an hour south of Nashville will be jumping this weekend with some 80,000 attendees each year for the four-day music fest that started in 2001.

The New York Times says that the festival has "revolutionized the modern rock festival."

Rolling Stone magazine dubbed Bonnaroo "The American music festival to end all festivals" and named Bonnaroo in 2004 "one of the 50 moments to change the history of rock and roll."

Think we can do some outreach?  YES WE CAN!
See how/why below the fold

On this day, May 20th, in which Obama will win a majority of pledged elected delegates, I would like to offer a dozen reasons, a baker's dozen, for why Barack Obama will be the next president. I know that this is a difficult time for Clinton supporters, but we have a candidate who can win in November.  Let's do it!  (I have posted this on My DD also.)  

Ya know what the Big Story last night was?  The Kidz.  The kids people always say won't turn out.  Well, they did.  And they have been this whole primary.  They mashed.

The kids are alright.

I've said it before & I'll say it again, these are the smartest kids ever to walk the face of the Earth.  

I've heard the Millennials would change the world, but I never imagined they would be this awesome.