Posted July 21st, 2008 at 6:56PMJohn McCain hopes to convince a majority of people under 30 years old that he’s the best presidential candidate for them. So far, it’s not going well. Recent polls show Barack Obama with a lead of at least 20 percentage points.
“John McCain sees young voters as a competitive demographic this year,” said McCain youth outreach spokesman Joe Pounder, “and we’re going to go after them.”
To do that, the McCain campaign says it will focus on his legacy as a war hero, plus appearances on late night television shows — including Saturday Night Live — and town hall meetings around the country. He also has an army of thousands of young volunteers, thanks to Young Republican and College Republican clubs around the country connecting with peers over the phone and through canvas drives.
…
Those campaign methods look pretty traditional next to Obama’s presence on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. McCain has said he’s still learning how to sign onto the Internet himself.
Yeah, good luck with that. I can kind of predict already that Obama will still get a huge majority of the 18-35 demographic, nationwide. But McCain still has to go after the younger demographic, if only
for appearances’ sake. It’s the classic “go after them where they’re strong” tactic, a la Kerry’s swift boat vets. My main concern at this point is Obama relying too heavily on the “youth vote.” That supposed great voting bloc, rocking the vote and supporting the most progressive of causes every four years, has a tendency to skip out come election day (although the 18-35 segment did increase their turnout by 11% in ’04, it simply wasn’t enough).
Democrats need to focus on the winning play book that Republicans have been writing over the past two decades. That means…
- getting dirty (no, I’m talking dirtier than free bumper stickers from MoveOn),
- amp up the pandering and fearmongering (the difficulty here is finding a feasible Other, given a progressive(ish) Dem platform),
- going after the opponent’s strong points (debating a nonissue like flag pins draws attention away from actual issues, ie. potential weaknesses),
- getting more support from the people who actually vote (older than 18-35, certainly).
I think by this point, after eight years of Bush (and eight years of Clintonian triangulation before), the ends justify the means. I’m never a fan of personal politics, but provided success both for POTUS and in Congress, the Democrats might be able to get something done after this election.
Bring on the cult of personality. Obama is personable enough. Maybe he should get a dog before the election.
Here’s a hopeful accompanying article re: the ’08 primaries and the youth vote, from futuremajority.com.
Tags: 
