I'm worried about the McCain campaign. It's hard to see how the campaign's efforts to garner the youth vote aren't inexorably at odds with a message that, in painting Obama as a 'celeb' the likes of Paris and Britney, has Obama's youth and popularity with young voters as its central criticisms.
Where Obama sees a selling point, McCain sees a sneering point. And when McCain asks 'Who is this young guy who wants to be president?' he's also saying, 'Who are these kids who think they get to pick the president?'
I wonder if it would really be so bad if America's politicians attracted the same amount of attention as its doyennes of the supermarket checkout aisle. What's so bad about a politician who young people actually care about? About American politics with something in common with American Idol?
The idea that Obama's youth support derives from his baby browns -- and not from his positions on college cost, the environment, and the Iraq War -- is insulting.
From his position on the war to his inability to Google, McCain's not giving youth voters a very good sense of "I get you, I get where you're coming from and I get what your issues are," said Erica Williams, Policy and Advocacy Manager with Campus Progress, the legally nonpartisan grassroots organization.
Young people want to be treated like real voters. We want real solutions on our own issues. We don't want the same old Bush-Cheney message repackaged in a pitiable attempt at Web 2.0. And we don't, for better or for worse, want a president who doesn't use email.
