the daily show

Seven days left in an election I've been writing about for two years now, almost since this blog started. I've got to be honest, these are good descriptions of how I'm feeling:

Or, in the immortal words of Dave Chapelle:

It's not that I'm uninterested, or that there isn't plenty of important GOTV and voter protection work left to do. It's just that I'm exhausted by the horse race. I don't want to see McCain and Palin on TV anymore, or hear about Joe the Plumber, Steve the fireman, Claire the florist or any other over-sentimentalized, probably fictitious, "everyman." What I'm eager to see just how big our majorities are going to be. I want to get working on what we do next. I want to see those final numbers on youth turnout.

There are only two major events that really standout for me between now and election day, and both of them happen tonight.

First, Barack Obama is going to be the first Presidential candidate in 16 years to purchase a half hour of ad time on prime-time network television. The last candidate was Ross Perot in 1992. Perot used that time to bolster a surprisingly successful third party run (which was responsible for splitting Bush Sr.'s vote and electing Clinton), and to speak to the American people frankly about the economy:

I don't know what we'll see from Obama tonight. Maybe a primer on voting rights to combat the dirty tricks? Maybe another frank discussion about the economy? I would love to see a presentation in which he builds a picture of economic recovery that ties together our major concerns, including a new, green energy economy and fixing our broken health care system. Considering how the Republicans are framing this election as a battle between "socialism" and "unfettered market capitalism (whatever that means after the bailout)," the opportunity seems ripe for Obama to lay out his plan and lay the groundwork for claiming a popular mandate on November 5th.

The second item will be Al Gore's live address to the Power Vote coalition via live webcast. I'm going to be looking at PowerVote, It's Getting Hot in Here, and a few other youth/climate groups in the coming months to take the lead in pushing an Obama administration towards a more progressive energy policy. I'll be interested to see what Gore says tonight (for instance, will he exhibit some leadership, or continue to exhort young people to "chain themselves to bulldozers") and how the youth climate movement responds.

Finally. That's all I'm gonna say.

Here's a video of Jim Wallis on the Daily Show talking about the demise of the Christian Right as a force in American Politics, and the emergence of an evangelical youth movement that is concerned with poverty and the environment over culture war issues: (h/t to Revolution in Jesusland)

For your afternoon viewing pleasure. All week long the Daily Show will be reporting from Iraq. For real.

• How Green is your candidate? Grist will let you know with a new election '08 series and widget to deliver news directly to your blog of SocNet profile.
• Think Progress reports that Fox's Daily Show knock-off, The Half-Hour News Hour, is getting canned:
  

  The reviews for the program were consistently dismal. Its very first review, from the Orlando Sentinel, decried the “[l]aughter, of an awfully canned variety, greets all the gags. Nothing happening on screen justifies these outbursts. … If we’re lucky, we’ll never hear of this dreadful show again.” “Sometimes the humor is so heavy-handed that it seems almost like self-parody,” said the New York Times. “The 1/2 Hour News Hour is slow torture all by itself,” said the Philadelpha Inquirer.

  What the right-wing failed to grasp is Jon Stewart is funny not because he spins falsehoods but because he tells the truth.

• Student loan shenanigans continue. Nelnet is being forced to pay a $1million fine (peanuts, really) for deceptive marketing practices. This after Nebraska Attorney General Jim Bruning, who had originally "forgiven" Nelnet's fine, was revealed to have received campaign contributions from NelNet employees. The Higher Ed Watch article is ugly. Bruning goes to bat big-time for the corporate lenders, going so far as to call NY AG Cuomo's investigations into the industry (which have revealed major corruption) as an "embarassment." Bruning is the real embarassment. For any Nebraska FM readers: what can y'all do to get this joker out of office?
• The Washington Blade profiles David Hardt and Chris Anderson, the new heads of the Young Democrats, who had this to say about the future of YDA:
  

  “Right now I want to grow the organization,” he said. “We need to have better organization and communication between the national organization and local chapters. Young people make up the largest voter block and we need to raise money to reach young voters.”

  Amen.

• A blogger at Campus Progress notes that Senator Pat Leahy just wrapped up a bit piece in the new Batman movie. The blogger "doesn't know what to do with" the information, but I do - applaud it. Leahy is on the front lines right now in fighting Republican corruption in government. Yay on him for realizing that popular culture is a tool to embrace in that fight, not a pariah to attack (as some other Democrats seem to think *cough*Hillary and Lieberman*cough*).
• "Fair and Balanced" Fox News got caught editing Democratic candidate Al Franken's Wikipedia entry.
• Finally, what if the last five years were a giant Batman episode, and Dennis Kucinich a Superhero? Keep your eye out for Teen-Wolf Blitzer:
  

Sorry for the lite posting schedule lately. My class and some social obligation are eating up my time this week and next. Regularly scheduled programing will return on Wednesday. Items on the horizon include: Metrics and Memes (and how they are related), the Gamer Constituency, and more website reviews. In the meantime, here are a few things that have been sitting in my inbox that I don't have time to fully get into:

The New York Times has a very interesting (if somewhat dubious) article noting that evangelical teens are disappearing like it was The Rapture.

Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation.

Buried at the bottom of the article are claims that may actually debunk this data. But if its true, it bodes well for a future progressive majority (or at least a greatly reduced evangelical conservative minority). At the very least, its a fascinating and sometimes creepy article about evangelical youth culture that anyone interested in appealing to young voters should look at.

CIRCLE released a new study tracking youth civic participation and it paints a mixed picture - more young people are involved, but 20% are completely disengaged. The survey is getting a lot of press, and Peter Levine comments on the commentary, noting that news organizations are either pumping up the greater involvement angle, or focusing negatively on the 20% who aren't engaged. He's got a great quote in this FOX story that all communications folks at campaigns and youth groups should take to heart:

"The public, the political parties and the media all need to be reminded that saying that young people just don't participate reinforces the myth," said Peter Levine director of CIRCLE. "Youth turnout was sharply up in 2004, and the survey shows that when young people are asked to vote and volunteer, they are much more likely to do so."

Other noteworthy findings in the survey include:

• Increase in Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and Drop in Acceptance of Homosexuals. 6% and 7% respectively.
• Immigration Protests Drew Mass Youth Support: 23% of immigrant youth, and 18% second generation youth attended demonstrations.
• Shift in identification: 28% self identify as Republicans, down from 31%. Dem identification stayed the same at 47%
• Majority tuned in to politics: 72% say they stay informed of current events and politics

Finally, a new study from Indiana University says that The Daily Show is just as substantive as network and cable news programs when it comes to covering current events and politics.

Scott Stringer over at MyDD beat me to the punch in commenting on the article in today's NY Times Week in Review about the effects that YouTube is having in this election cycle. Scott hits most of the points I was going to highlight (so go read the post), but he didn't touch an important point at the end of the article:

Then again, YouTube’s impact on politics may be exaggerated. For one, the site’s users are generally young and not highly engaged politically.

“Most social networking sites cater to younger audiences, 18 to 24,” says Michael Bassik, vice president of Internet advertising at MSHC Partners, which advises candidates on media strategies. “For the most part, it’s not political conversations taking place there.”

Interesting, except (a) myself and just about everyone I know watches YouTube - including my non-geek coworkers - and all of us are above 24 years of age, (b) the 18-24 year olds that Mr. Bassik discounts have played an increasingly important role in 2004, 2005, and 2006 elections, and (c) a search for "Colbert" on YouTube will yield clips that have been viewed 30-60,000 times, and a search for The Daily Show will get you clips that have been viewed as many as 100,000 times. I'd say that's indicative of a political conversation - or at least a substantive interest in politics - on YouTube. And - shockingly - its happening among those supposedly apathetic young whipper-snappers!

Dear Mr. Siegel,

With all due respect, I have to take issue with this:

That could be why all the pre-election talk about Jon Stewart sending his young viewers--though the average age of a "Daily Show" viewer is actually 47--to the polls in great numbers to vote for Kerry was just that--talk. It simply never happened.

That's tired and lame conventional wisdom. It is false.

Youth voter turnout was the highest in 2004 since 1972 (when 18-year-olds were first allowed to cast a ballot). They voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry. See my Nov 5th 2004 post on this topic if you need a refresher in the facts:

What's more, in battleground states -- where MFA and a host of others did the bulk of their work -- turnout was above 60%, and broke for Kerry by an average of almost 20 points.

As for the impact of John Stewart and the "Daily Show" specifically, as someone who founded and helped operate that youth politics organization Music For America from 2003 - 2004, I can tell you from experience that their comedy was an enormous asset in motivating and, yes, even educating our peers to get involved.