2004 Election

Update: Here's another thought. I wonder if there is any connection between this and declining TV viewership among younger voters? Most attack ads are going to be delivered via TV advertising and repeated on network news coverage. These things also make their way onto YouTube, Blogs, MoveOn emails and more, so maybe there's nothing here, but it's a thought.
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Here's a little bit of weird data in a poll taken by Pew. Despite weeks of attacks by McCain - many of which were declared outright lies by the media and even Karl Rove - and another week in which Obama punched back with a lot of negative ads, young voters this cycle are less likely than young voters in 2004 to view this campaign cycle as overly negative.

When the public is asked to characterize the tone of the presidential campaign thus far, fewer now than in 2004 describe the race as too negative. Four years ago, more than six-in-ten (62%) said that the campaign was too negative, while just 32% said it was not. Now, 43% describe the race as too negative and a slight majority (51%) says it is not.

This shift in the balance of opinion is found across gender and party, but nowhere is it stronger than among young people (those under 30). For this group, 58% said that the campaign was too negative in 2004, while just three-in-ten (30%) describe it this way today. That is markedly different than older Americans. Among those 65 and older, a majority (61%) described the presidential race as too negative in 2004 and still half (52%) describe the campaign as too negative this year.

I guess Obama's generally positive campaign rhetoric might account for this? It seems odd that young people aren't responding negatively to so many attacks on their candidate . . .

In general, this is a very good thing. Negative campaigns can sometimes depress turnout - including young voter turnout. If most young voters don't see the campaign as too negative by now, there's not too much of a chance anything we see in the next 6 weeks will change their mind.

This is a guest post by Michael Whitney. Whitney is a web designer and Internet strategist based in Washington, DC. As the co-founder and Communications Director of Generation Dean, Michael organized 23,000 young people to support Howard Dean for President. He can be reached at michael[at]michaelwhitney[dot]net.

It's no secret 2008 will dwarf not just the last election, but every election in presidential history; in the course of the nearly two-year-long campaign, the candidates will spend about a billion dollars selling themselves to the American public.

To give some perspective for young voters, take this time four years ago: at the February 2003 DNC Winter Meeting, Governor Howard Dean spoke to a roomful of two or three hundred students in Washington, DC for the annual College Democrats convention. That speech was for many the first hint he'd energize young voters in his campaign for president.

Fast forward to the same weekend in 2007: more than 3,000 DC-area students organized themselves to see Barack Obama speak at George Mason University. Forgetting the relative disparity between the popularity of Obama and Dean, this is still an impressive feat. Needless to say, the key to this success is the existence of common spaces to reach young people in the form of Facebook and MySpace.

(Ed Note - Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on June 24, 2004)

At a recent news conference President Bush declared it was his job to change our culture -- to replace a "do what feels right" mentality with an "Era of Responsibility." The image is comic; one could almost imagine Bush wearing a trucker hat emblazoned "Jesus is My Homeboy" as he spoke. Well, on behalf of the culture he so desperately wants to reform, thanks, but no thanks, Mr. President.

Don't get me wrong; responsibility is a good thing. It's just that a man who evasively describes his first 40 years of life by saying "I did some irresponsible things when I was young and irresponsible" doesn't really have the credibility to tell anyone how to live their life. Especially when his conception of responsibility has less to do with personal accountability and more to do with a punitive, fundamentalist version of morality. The hypocrisy reeks and our generation has grown up with a knack for sniffing it out.