Mitt Romney

The "student" section of Mitt Romney's website seems to have evaporated into the interwebs, but the man himself was on the ground today in Michigan dispensing sage advice to high school students in an attempt to woo the youth vote away from McCain and Huckabee:

Romney was a bit less emotive and a bit more reasoned in his approach to telling the students what they could get out of high school. First, he compared life to the show, “Let’s Make a Deal,” from the 1970s, explaining that choices in life are all about the trades made.

“And the difference, however, between life and that show is that you know what’s behind the curtain. People will tell you what’s behind the curtain,” he advised. “You get to make a trade, but you make it with your eyes open. You’re not blind, and so you’re making choices now, and you will make choices over the coming years, and you know what the consequences of good choices or bad choices will be.”

Jeebus. I don't know what's worse, that, his youth fundraising pyramid scheme, or comMITT 2 the FUTURE - the now defunct youth operation.

Still, credit where it is due. The man got his clock cleaned among young voters by Huckabee in Iowa and McCain in New Hampshire. Michigan is his last stand and he's reaching for every vote he can get. Not a bad move considering that Michigan residents can vote in either primary and the Democratic race is uncontested due to intra-party squabbles about the nominating contest.

As atonement for this slow news day, I also offer this moment of Mitt Romney Zen:

A number of newsworthy articles around the tubes today:

• US News is running an excellent story that gets the youth vote right. The biggest shock of the story though, comes from Mitt Romney. You may remember that long ago I reported on Mitt Romney's scheme to get young voters raising cash for his campaign by promising them a 10% cut on anything raised over $1000? Well according to this story, that program has brought in $100,000. No word as to whether or not any of the budding fundraisers actually got their cut.
• Ben Adler has a great story at the Politico about what the newly declared January 3rd caucus date means for the Democratic campaign's youth vote strategy. Adler notes that Obama will be looking to have his supporters caucus at home to spread support across the state. Edwards, on the other hand, will look to have his supporters caucus in university towns, where his support is weak. Adler notes that not all students will have a choice, as some dorms may not be open during the caucus.
• On a related note, the Politico just launched a students section: Campus Politico.
• Finally, Shang Ting Lipton takes a look at the role of pop culture (or lack of) in Hillary's campaign in her Huffington Post column: Going Hillywood.

• The Mitt Romney campaign is asking their supporters to take materials provided on the Romney for President website and remix them into campaign videos. Well, the folks on the Slate political and video teams have taken this opportunity and used it to poke fun at Romney, who once equated his 5 sons' work on his campaign to the service of our soldiers in Iraq.

• The Obama campaign has started to adopt some cultural outreach tactics. Volunteers from Bay-area schools recently set up shop outside a local music festival.
• Millennial blogger and Yale student Zach Marks compares Democratic and Republican outreach to young voters on the campaign trail in this column over at Huffington Post.
• Congress may have passed the College Cost Reduction Act, but it looks like increases in Pell Grants are still no sure thing.

Things in the world of progressive youth politics worth checking out today:

• The Pew Research Center for People and the Press confirms that viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are still the most politically informed Americans. Score another one for the stoned slacker brigades.
• David All at Tech President outlines five types of viral video he'd like to see by November 2008 (with examples). It's a well thought-out selection (though not comprehensive), and some of his examples are right on the money.
• Lauren Wolfe, president of the College Democrats, was on MyDD Blog Talk Radio this weekend discussing the College Dems new New Media strategy. Facebook, Video, Podcasts and a new website launching in the fall, listen here (iTunes, Windows Media).
• Finally, a few weeks ago we told you that Mitt Romney was trying to entice young people to fundraise for his campaign by offering them 10% of all they raise above $1,000. Turns out that may not be so ethical.

This is interesting:

A millionaire thanks to his work as a venture capitalist, Mitt Romney is acutely aware of the motivating power of money. His presidential campaign hopes it will have a similar effect on college students, which is why it's offering them a cut of their fundraising.

Participants in "Students for Mitt" will get 10 percent of the money they raise for the campaign beyond the first $1,000. While candidates often offer professional fundraisers commissions up to 8 percent, campaign experts believe the Massachusetts Republican is the first to do so with the legion of college students who have historically served as campaign volunteers.

"For the kids that want to get involved in a political campaign and they don't want to spend their summer painting houses, they can help the campaign and themselves at the same time," said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.

Better living through consultancy. It sets up an interesting dichotomy between the Democratic and Republican campaigns, as it's the exact opposite strategy from that of John Edwards, whose One Corps seeks to involve younger voters by appealing to their desire to serve their country and participate in civic life via a community service based model.

Serving yourself vs. serving others. Is this desperation on the part of Republicans for some youthful blood, or is it a smart play? It will be an interesting battle to watch.

You can also read about Romney's use of the interweb here.