Around the Tubes - Tuesday August 28

My day job is hectic today, so I've just got some links to throw your way. Back tomorrow with a post that has a little more meat.

• Over at Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan thinks that it's no big deal that the Republican brand has officially crashed among young voters. The reason? Bevan pulls out that old wives tale that young voters get more conservative as they age. News flash - partisanship is a habit (pdf). The Boomers swung liberal in the 60s and 70 and they stayed that way. Gen X swung conservative in the 80s and they stayed tthat way. If Millennials become progressives now, they too will stay that way. For all the visual folks out there, I'll pull up this oldy-but-goody:

• Over at Tech President, Greg Bloom, who sometimes blogs here at FM, has an excellent post that you should read about politician's profiles and FaceBook and the value of a digital handshake from the candidate.
• At Open Left, Matt Stoller has a post you should read about the value of humor in politics and in journalism.
• Working Assets reports that Hillary Clinton is the first presidential candidate to install their voter registration widget on her website. We should probably hook that up here.
• Finally, The New York Times Week in Review has an article about lowering the voting age. We got asked that uestion at Yearly Kos on the panel, and I stand by Adam Conner's answer - I have no objection to that. Though I do think there is a lot more worthwhile stuff we could be doing like lowering the barriers that 18-24 year olds already face in our voting process.