palin

As Michael noted yesterday, it can be frustrating just how much of our national discourse still, even after the enormous demonstrable progress in recent years, operates under the constraints of the myth of widespread civic disengagement and apathy among young voters. Like many readers of this site, I get tired hearing these kinds of myths repeated, along with the kind of concern they engender, in the whispered, just-between-you-and-me fears of older relatives.

Which makes me all the more glad to have a visceral sign of young voter interest to point to while assuaging said relatives, and that's the debate watch parties we've seen for the first Presidential debate through Drinking Liberally, which included young people (and young-at-heart people) packing bars, auditoriums and coffeeshops throughout the country, all just to watch that supposedly not-so-cool televised debate with a bunch of their peers. In New York City, no less an authority than Comedy Central described it as "insanely crowded" when we filled DCTV with 200 engaged, overwhelmingly young voters; in Salt Lake City, they teamed up with Young Democrats of Utah to fill the local tavern to the brim; and in Denver, over 150 progressive Coloradoans found their way to the Skylark Lounge. It was a great night.

Though not everyone thought it would be so - when the first Presidential debate was announced as being on a Friday night, some were skeptical. As NPR's Day To Day made clear, Friday night is widely seen as

a time often reserved for dates, sporting events, or the beginning of a weekend getaway.

Which brings up the question - why not make watching the Presidential debates feel like a night on the town?

As DL's Executive Director (and my colleague) Justin Krebs noted,

"Watching political events has become sort of like watching sporting events in New York and around the country...State of the Union nights have become regularly accompanied by drinking games, and the debates are no different."

If we can get people across the country to gather together to watch a football game together, we can get young people to gather together to celebrate retaking their country together. As we prepare for tonight's Biden-Palin debate, be it by playing Palin Bingo or agonizing over debate prep, we can all drink to that.

Bumped. --Craig

Crossposted at Young People For

One of my fellow YP4 Leadership Academy participants and myself attended the debate watch party last night hosted by San Francisco for Obama. We predicted that McCain would address the audience and viewers at home as "friends" (even though he should be talking directly with Obama out of respect and given that it's a debate), and Obama would share his "hope" for the country by bringing "change" to Washington. Nevertheless, additional phrases/terms were added to the pot: "Wall Street v. Main Street," "strategy v. tactic," and how about that "bracelet"?

After the debate, I listened to various analysts and read blogs and editorials representing different parts of the political spectrum. One commentator summed up the debate as a competition between experience and judgment, which is a salient point. While I honor and pay my respects to McCain and his military service as a POW, his experience doesn't necessarily guarantee he makes sound military/national defense and security judgment. His initial and continued support of the war in Iraq is a case in point.

I began to discuss the debate with my parents earlier this afternoon, and my father was already looking forward to seeing the first (and only) VP debate next week. Once again, I thought about this theme of experience and judgment. I was particularly taking a closer look at McCain's VP selection, Gov. Palin, and reconsidering if such a move was strategic or tragic?

While her identities as a hockey mom and Washington outsider might have intially appealed to disgruntled Clinton supporters and helped McCain with the "women vote," how long will the postive craze over Palin last? When will more of the public, particularly those who are eligible and registered to vote, be made aware of Palin's judgment as mayor of Wasila to bill sexual assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams? Biden, in contrast, drafted the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, in which he included "provisions to make states ineligible for federal grant money if they charged rape victims for exams and the kits containing the medical supplies needed to conduct them." McCain voted against Biden's initiative. Again, a question of judgment.

The more I listen to Palin and observe her resort back to her talking points when posed with questions on foreign policy (as in the case of the interview with Katie Couric), I worry that she would be second-in-command to the oldest first-term U.S. president.

Palin: strategic or tragic? And for whom?

Maybe you've had a sit-in. Or taken part in a teach-in. Well, now, you can join a "lie-in."

Which is probably a less absurd phrase than a "nose-in" -- even though the concept is about that absurdity level.

You see, folks have decided it's time to call the McCain-Palin ticket out on their lies. And what better way to do that than with long, rubbery noses.

They call it Pinocchio Politics. If McCain's going to have a speak-no-truth approach to campaigning, these Pinocchio Posses are going to point it out...with their noses.

Seriously, it's a weird idea; an entertaining website; and it might even become a catchy idea. A man in a chicken suit followed the first George Bush around, until the President of the United State snapped at him...giving the fowl friend far too much credibility. In 2000, "Tax Man" hounded Hillary Clinton's opponent Rick Lazio for not releasing his tax returns. And, of course, in '04, the GOP delegates waved flip-flops and wore purple band-aids to mock service to our country.

So, weirder stuff has happened. Who, ahem, nose how this will turn out?

There are those who organize. Then, there are those who organize organizers.

John Raskin is one of those meta-organizers. When the Republican Party decided "community organizers" were there new welfare queens / flag-burning hippies / married gay people / human-animal hybrids (basically whatever group they mark as the "other") at the GOP Convention, they forgot one thing: when organizers are attacked...they organize.

So Raskin (who organizes in my neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen) launched "Community Organizers Fight Back" to give a voice to this suddenly-maligned field.

And now, they are using Sarah Palin's name in vain (or at least, in absurdity) to raise funds for community organizers. The Sarah Palin Action Fund for Organizer Training is going to send folks to serious training sessions at the Midwest Academy. Then they are going to send the soon-to-be-failed VP candidate a big old thank you card.

Who knew Palin would become the poster child for the organizing movement?

John also works with ACT-Now in New York, which gets boots on the ground in close races (it got it's name by being a volunteer arm of America Coming Together, which it has far outlasted), and founded Democracy in the Park in 2004, the first time I'd ever heard of people using their cell phones to phonebank from wherever they are (now a common practice).

He was also just named one of City Hall Paper's 40-Under-40 "rising stars" in NYC politics.

So in other words, check out the Sarah Palin Action Fund...or else John will come and organize you.

Bumped. In a worst case scenario in which Obama loses, this post identifies what will be the key messaging challenge for youth organizers on November 5th. --Mike

Personal drama, celebrity personalities, legal trouble, rumors, crowd comparing, covers of weekly mags…we even have celebrity speak outs, most recently from Pink and Matt Damon who are making their opinions loud and clear that they are definitely Team Obama/Biden.

It’s as if we are in the middle of the newest reality show.  But alas, it is the election of the next President, which nearly everyone would say is the most powerful position in the world and just about every young person I talk to says this election is critical for their jobs and families. 

Young Voters Up for Grabs?

Young voters are squarely with Team Obama/Biden, but some members of the media (and some tenacious young Republicans) don’t seem to think so.   Just last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article which essentially said that because of the Palin pick, young people are now up for grabs.

This assumes of course that young voters just fall out the sky to vote in large numbers for a candidate because they are young or give a good speech.  A candidate has to have a ground game in place for young people in order to secure their vote.  It is highly unlikely on the Republican side, this close to Election Day and especially since they are already facing a huge uphill climb since 2004, that they will be able to grab the youth vote.

In 2004, young people were the only age group to vote for the Democratic ticket, giving Kerry a 10% point advantage over Bush.  In 2006, young voters gave Democrats a 22% point advantage. In the most recent presidential poll done by Newsweek, young voters prefer Obama/Biden by a 27% point margin.  In fact, young voters are the only age group Team Obama/Biden is winning.

All of this good news on the youth vote does have a downside for Democrats.  If, like what happened in 2004, Republicans win, guess who gets blamed?  Yep, young voters.  Young people were told they didn’t turnout, that they didn’t perform yet again and that they are all hype—even though they increased their turnout more than any other age group and hit record turnout levels in 2004.  Clearly, the worry again if Obama does not win, is that young people will get blamed.

But...

Is liking someone enough to get someone’s vote, especially with young voters?  Will the economic times we are facing and that fact that poll after poll showing that the economy is the #1 issue young people care about win over the personality factor?  Will the election actually get back to talking about things like the economy?

In Nebraska, a few young Republicans I spoke with at the state’s Convention Watch Party are definitely Team McCain/Palin.  They like her because she is young, they feel like they can relate to her and the fact that she brings true conservative values and mom credentials to the ticket is a major plus.

Research however tell us time after time, in particular in studies done by researcher David Nickerson, the way you get young voters to the polls boils down to young people talking young people about the candidates/ issues and running a field program just like you would to any other group of voters.  The conventional wisdom that it’s all the cult of personality that gets young voters to the polls simply doesn’t ring true.

Drop the Lipstick, Bring the Focus Back

We have a banking system that is falling apart at the seams.  It started with Bear Sterns, then Fannie and Freddie and now we are beginning to hear the trickle of small and large banks that are being sold or being saved by the government (with our tax dollars).  AIG, one of the largest insurance companies, is asking the government right now for $40 billion dollars to save them from bankruptcy.  We are living what professors will teach in economic classes for the next 50 years or more and yet we are hearing more about lipstick.

If Team Obama/Biden and Team McCain/Palin are truly serious about targeting the youth vote, then here are a few suggestions to both teams:

1)     Go back to the hope place.  I am not the only one who wants to hear how we as a nation can solve our country’s problems.  Both liberal political commentator George Lakoff and conservative David Brooks are hungering for the hope place.  Is it any wonder why Reagan, who talked a lot about hope and the promise of our country and had a strong young voter outreach program on top of it all, won?  We all want hope back in politics, even if we do get distracted by lipstick and the cover of weekly mags occasionally.  Hope and the promise that our government can do better is why so many young people joined Team Obama to begin with.  Even if people are not saying it out loud, trust me, they want to be inspired, they want to be called to something bigger than themselves.  Don’t let us down and don’t listen to naysayers.  We want our hope back.

2)     Go bigger with young voter outreach programs.  While it’s true Obama has the best and biggest young voter outreach program in recent history, with not only a national youth director but state youth directors that have full field operations happening on and off college campuses.  McCain should do that as well, although it will be very difficult to build an operation in 50 days that Obama has been building over the last year.  Both campaigns absolutely need more buzz in youth circles.  Things have slowed down since the primary when it comes to the buzz, or what is often called “street marketing.”  Get local opinion leaders, mavericks, whatever you want to call them and get them to start wearing your shirts (think DJ at a club wearing a t-shirt with Obama’s face on it), do more parties like the Hope Gallery in Denver and look back at 2004 to what a lot of the youth groups from YDA to the League of Young Voters to the Bus Project and take a page out of their playbook because they were mad creative and it worked.  In fact, Obama's team is starting to do this...

3)     Keep the gloves off, but no sucker punches.  For anyone who wants the election to be warm and fuzzy, they should go to a secluded island tomorrow.  Our country is facing big problems and I don’t see either side being nice.  Young voters don’t mind “tough,” they just don’t want to be lied to.  Young people simply don’t buy a product on face value—information found on the internet and friends’ opinions matter and matter a lot.  Out of any of the age groups young people can see through the lies faster than any other voters since they have been marketed to since they were little kids—so it’s a skill fine tuned and trying to pull a fast one on young voters will most definitely back fire.