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CHICAGO -- While Republican presidential rivals continue to brawl over the nomination, President Obama's re-election campaign is aggressively courting one of the constituencies most enthusiastic about the Democratic flagbearer in 2008: swing-state college students and other voters under 30.
The outreach events at 12 colleges and universities in 10 states over the next two months won't just entail some Facebook fan pages and the occasional celebrity drop-by. The Greater Together Summit Tour will include in-person policy discussions led by top re-elect brass like campaign manager Jim Messina, adviser David Axelrod, and deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter. Local officials, student leaders, and actors and actresses will also be participating, with appearances from onetime White House staffer Kal Penn and actress Gabrielle Union.
The "summit" tour kicked off at Columbus State Community College in Ohio earlier this month and featured an appearance by field director Jeremy Bird. An aide said that over 700 people attended a second summit event last night at North Carolina Central University, where Messina led students in chants of "Fired Up! Ready to Go!"
Other events are scheduled in February for schools in Nevada, Virginia, Florida and New Hampshire; March will see similar events held at major universities in Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Michigan. A similarly-themed series of roundtable discussions at historically black colleges and universities will hit 28 schools in the coming months as well.
The events -- which are structured to include policy discussions of issues important to young voters as well as question-and-answer sessions -- are aimed at recruiting volunteers, energizing new voters, and reminding young supporters who were in their early 20s four years ago why they got on the Obama train in the first place.
A review of 2008 exit polls shows why the re-engagement effort may be crucial for Obama's performance in swing states in 2012. In North Carolina, where Obama barely eked out a victory over John McCain, young voters broke for the Democrat by 48 points, offering more than 10 points more support than the national youth average. In Virginia and Wisconsin, young people made up 21 and 22 percent of the voting population respectively, compared to the 18 percent youth participation rate nationwide.
According to Scott Keeter, the director of survey research at Pew Research Center, Obama would have still easily won the necessary 270 electoral votes last cycle even without his strong performances with young voters.
But in 2012, with a much closer electoral count likely, turnout among 18-29 year olds could make the difference between loss and victory in a swing state.
"When the difference before winning and losing the election may come down to North Carolina, or Virginia, or Colorado, you're in an 'every vote counts' scenario," Keeter said.
Obama still has a substantial advantage with younger voters. A January NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that, in a head to head matchup, Obama would beat Mitt Romney 51 percent to 40 percent with voters under 35. A November poll by Pew found Obama's support with those under 30 at 61 percent against Romney, and even higher with young voters who are black or Hispanic.
But the re-election team's biggest challenge will be keeping its past supportive young voters engaged, voting, and volunteering, especially as the sluggish job market hits their demographic hard.
"Older voters haven't been as directly affected by the job situation as young people have," said Keeter, noting that young minority voters are particularly victim to high unemployment rates. "There's a lot of drag on the president's ability here to reconstruction his coalition."
Those are the kind of concerns that the leaders of Team Obama -- like Messina -- hope to allay by reminding voters of the president's accomplishments with in-person engagement in young peoples' own states.
"When people say to you 'where's the hope?' or 'where's the change?'" Messina told voters Tuesday night in North Carolina, "I need you to remind them that change is being delivered every single day."
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I ♥ it!|
President Obama's taking it to the streets...
On another note, has anyone noticed the looks on the faces of those in attendance at the Willard & Rick
eventsfreak shows?It's a cross between bewilderment & boredom! lol
That I will have to check out.
I'm telling ya!
Their body language speaks volumes... lol
Yaaaaaay!!!!!
Road Trip!!!!
Free beer for everyone!!!!
We want these college students learning government dependency right from the start.
Free student loan repayment waivers for anyone signing a Democrat voter registration card, payable on the day after Barry wins re-election.
I hear Pink Floyd music thumping in the background of TeaPeople ....'We don't need no education'........
....but without understanding!
Speaking as a democrat whose child paid off 35K in student loans their first year out of college, I'm grateful for the opportunity those student loans afforded. Without the democrats that fought to keep interest rates low, the bill for interest would have been 10K, instead of a few thousand after graduation when the loans became due.
Thank goodness the republicans didn't get their way on this issue.
Chilled
Why would a teabagger need education when all you need are concocted lies to persuade their illiterate minds. RWNJs will rather give tax cuts and bail out WS criminals and their cronies at the expense of educating the country's future.........and you wonder why all fight for is to take us back to the stone age.
Fiesty, this might explain the "looks of boredom" and if not, its fun to read. This was sent to me by a
trusted friend so I am unable to supply documentation, but my source's veracity is unimpeachable.
Interesting editorials from Europe
regarding politics
What Respected
Foreign Newspapers Write About U.S/ GOP Politics
Politics
The
following is from “The Week,” a weekly journal that is neither liberal nor
conservative. They quoted several respected foreign newspapers regarding US GOP
politics which I found interesting:
THE GERMAN
PRESS
The Republican presidential contest in America is a “freak
show,” said Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel. The candidates vie with one
another to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions, denying evolution
while endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants.
How did a major
party in the world’s sole superpower become a “club of liars, debtors,
betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?” These
know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been “neutered by the demands
of political correctness” so that it can’t say what’s obvious: These people are
daft! Instead, it “proclaims one clown after the next to be the new
front-runner.” The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an
intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses.
Scarcely a one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy. One said Africa
is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya. Collectively, “they expose
a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W.
Bush look like a scholar.”
THE FRENCH PRESS
That’s the
scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation. The only GOP
candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is dead last in most
polls. The others “careen to extreme positions that include starting new wars
and abandoning old allies.” And that’s when they even have a position. Herman
Cain, now thankfully out of the race, was the front-runner even though he
couldn’t find a single coherent word to say about President Obama’s policy on
Libya. He even boasted of knowing little about foreign countries. And yet it was
his adultery, not his astounding ignorance that brought him down.
THE
ENGLISH PRESS
There’s a simple explanation for this bizarre
phenomenon, said Max Hastings in the London Daily Mail. In the “lunatic,
gun-toting badlands of America’s Hicks-ville, Tea Party country,” it’s
considered suspiciously elitist to show any interest in modern science or the
world beyond America’s borders. “Say what you like about British politics, no MP
of any party would dare to offer themselves as town dog-catcher while knowing as
little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates.” We take
public service seriously. Yet we in Britain, and everyone in the rest of the
world, will suffer if “one of the lunatics” vying for the nomination makes it to
the White House. “The American political system has seldom, if ever, looked so
inadequate.”
Don’t worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent.
The fact that Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney’s inevitability just
“confirms how inevitable” Romney’s nomination is. The thrice-married, ethically
challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme. Which means the nominee will be
Romney, “the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for president since...well,
ever.” So sit back and enjoy this circus passing for a presidential election. It
can’t possibly end in a GOP victory. Can it?
The world is laughing at them. Gives me hope and confidence.
Obama/Biden 2012
Savvy,
Who says the World is not watching?
Thanks for sharing - you're right it is a fun read & very astute!
PS: Good to see you - hope things are well!
PPS: I remember vividly the scenes from around the planet on Election Night 2008 - you could hear a collective sigh of relief that American's had finally awoken from their coma! ;o)
Fiesty, I'm well, thanks for asking. Speaking of '08, checkout The People's View for a wonderful montage of
that memorable time. It is amazing!
Obama/Biden 2012
I have seen democrats argue until they are blue in the face that there was no national debt but a surplus after Clinton left office. I have seen democrats argue until they are blue in the face that because the wars were paid for with emergency supplemental that they were "off the books" and therefore were not included in the debt. I have seen democrats argue until they are blue in the face that George W. Bush was responsible for the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and the beefed up CRA that was amended which encouraged banks to make NINJA loans. And for the record I don't think those on welfare were the biggest abusers of that. And I have seen democrats argue until they are blue in the face that the credit crisis had nothing to do with the severity of the recession. And I watched a man in the street interview where democrats thought that republicans control congress and they have NO idea who Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid is but they know exactly how much Sarah Palin spent on her wardrobe during the 2008 campaign
And you say republicans are dumb.
Another "free kool-aid for the wet behind the ears indoctrinated masses" tour. Hopey Changey worked in 2008, let's hope some real life observances prevent the same result and the same blind voting it did back then.
Here is my question-
This is reported as a "summit". It is being conducted by campaign officials.
Who is paying for this?
Obama goes out campaigning every day of the week- and taxpayers foot the bill because he declares it "not campaigning".
Is this another of those "not campaigning" jaunts that we have to fund?
If so, where do I go to file a complaint?
Gee, I don't know, but if they're being conducted by campaign officials - and that there's not one word to indicate that the President himself will be attending any of these (which of course you already knew) then my guess is that it would be paid for by the campaign. So if you want to file a complaint, maybe you should try complaining to the people who contribute to the campaign. You know - us. I promise, we'll give it the exact same consideration we give to every other one of your litany of daily complaints.
Or you could just go to the same place where you filed your complaints when every other president in our lifetime ran for re-election......
Let's ask those college co-eds how they feel about GOP/TP sanctioned state rape. Speaking of which, will the drug of choice still be a roofie?
JoAnne----you are forgetting the most important rule in No Joe's universe---there is NOTHING that Presidemt Obama can do correctly. Therefore, every public appearance that the President makes is a campaign appearance and is ripping off the taxpayers because we are footing the bill. Sad to say we have a long time until November to listen to that drivel every time the President is in public.
Speaking of the President---did you see the clip of him at the PBS taping of In Performance at the White House? You know the same series that has been done in every administration since the 1970s?
Steeler Fan-380417
You said it, I didn't
come on joe, you know you want to be there! its ok, its hard to come out, but i know theres a real democrat hiding in there!
Feisty, I was thinking about that rally I attended for Romney in Portland recently. We waited for almost an hour for Mitt, listening to a scratchy recording of martial music. There was no one to "warm up" the crowd, unless you count the campaign manager who appeared to be taking the stage simply to order folks to caucus for Romney. The Romney people don't seem to understand the concept of promoting their candidate, being persuasive, or generating enthusiasm.
Romney was introduced by the scion of a Maine construction-business family, Peter Cianchette. Like Romney, this guy made a fortune in investing and dabbles in politics. He's a handsome guy, but about as charismatic as Romney himself, which is to say, not a bit.
All the grass roots energy on the Republican side, as far as I can tell, is in the Ron Paul camp. If Paul endorses Romney, however, I doubt those folks will follow along, Romney is neither fish nor fowl, not a Tea Party guy and not s sensible moderate (any more.)
With all the new voter id laws and redistricting in various states, I wonder if it would be best for college students to vote by absentee ballot. I suppose that is your only option if you are attending an out of state college. Anyone have statistics on absentee ballots? I know my 82 years young mother always votes by absentee ballot but she also worries that her vote may not get counted. I prefer to vote at the polls and spend the day driving others to their precincts.
Obama/Biden 2012
Hi Cynthia,
I'm worried myself. We as a nation can't afford to have a FL 2000 again, in which the Republican party steals an election.
Cynthia---I had that same thought---with all the laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures to limit voting rights, these students need to make sure they will have a chance to vote in 2012.
"The events -- which are structured to include policy discussions of issues important to young voters as well as question-and-answer sessions -- are aimed at recruiting volunteers, energizing new voters, and reminding young supporters who were in their early 20s four years ago why they got on the Obama train in the first place."
Meanwhile, the other train is using robo-calls from Donald Trump. I love it.
Talk about odd couples---Trump and Romney are about as odd as it gets.
I'll bet the Obama rallies on campus are terrific----lots of energy and ideas. I'd go if I were......er.....well.....a few years younger!
Gee Steeler Fan, I'll bet it would make your leg tingle.
It is very important to engage citizens with their futures ahead of them. Republicans are centered on turning back the clock to 1930 and also the old European blend of church and state. Women's rights in health care practices established decades ago are also under threat of subservience to big government intrusion and regulation, just as the young are needing to make their own family choices and to use disease prevention.
Republicans in states like Wisconsin have put hurdles up for students to exercise their voting rights. Students also will benefit from information on how to pass Republican screening barriers. The decline of the more highly educated in voting Republican is at a perfect junction to be accelerated, out of youthful idealism and self interest.
Go for it! The future is in your hands and President Obama is your ally. Republicans are narrowing themselves into anti-cultural extremists with commitments to failing doctrine rather than facts and solutions. Youth may invent a viable second political party based on reality, rather than trending violations of all educational disciplines and education itself by the once authentic Republican Party.
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A very good move Mr. President! It is very impressive to see an American President talking to the students. It is very important to hear the President share his knowledge with the College Student's of our nation.
knowledge?
Progressive,
Yeah, that way he's doing something. I wonder if he's going to take BB King with him and sing a few songs.
Maybe pass out some free laptops and maybe even a few GM cars. Now that's the way to buy some votes. ....and it gives him something to do, cause he's sure not running the Country and you can't play golf everyday, can you?
the night before the election obama will pass out balloons and his syncophants will orgasm and squeal about how great he is, NEVER NEVER NEVER underestimate the stupidity of some American voters - especially the college kids