YAF

I highly recommend that everyone read these first two links.

• Over at Open Left, 21st Century Democrats has an excellent post describing the drop off in turnout between the Presidential contest and down ballot races in key states. This is an excellent argument as to why Obama can't do this alone. He needs outside groups complimenting his ground game and promoting those down ballot races.
• In a preview from this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, Matt Bai analyzes the generational rift between new black politicians like Obama and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and the old guard civil rights leaders like John Lewis and James Clyburn. The piece also touches on the rift at the institutional level between the NAACP and new players like Color of Change. It's a must read for those trying to get a handle on the new political landscape.
• CQ Politics has a lengthy and fascinating (if geeky) look at why 2008 is a particularly difficult year for pollsters.
• Of late Rock the Vote is championing veterans' voting rights. Heather Smith blogs about their latest campaign at the Huffington Post.
• Conservative Young America's Foundation still won't let reps from Campus Progress attend their conference (despite CP gladly admitting YAF alumns). Read the drama here.
• Confusing reports on the attitude of teenagers (13 - 19) on the direction of the country from a survey out of Medill.
• New Majority, a group out of Virginia, is planning on targeting local youth and Latinos.
• In Kentucky, Democrats are increasing their share of the electorate, thanks mainly to an influx of young voters.

Last week, Alica posted about a video created by YAF alum and conservative "All-Star" Jason Mattera. Pretty much nothing he said in the video - about young voters or the conservative youth movement - was true.

Campus Progress just released a great video taking down Mattera point by point:

We may have a couple big announcements here over the next couple days. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's what's going on around the interweb.

• Free Exchange on Campus rips apart this glossy poster that you can get free from Young America Foundation. Mine is already in the mail.

  

• Just when a new survey by the ONE Campaign finds that:
  

  More than nine in ten Democrats (93%) and 84% of Republicans agree that when millions of children around the world are dying from preventable diseases and hunger, we have a moral obligation to do what we can to help. Similarly, Democrats (90%) and Republicans (85%) agree that it is in keeping with the country’s values and our history of compassion to lead an effort to solve some of the most serious problems facing the world’s poorest people.

  When it comes to addressing these issues, Democrats (86%) and Republicans (67%) agree that it is important for Presidential candidates to discuss their plans for addressing global hunger and poverty issues in this campaign. Additionally, eight in ten Democrats (81%) and Republicans (80%) agree that the next president should keep the commitments made by President Bush to prevent and fight the spread of AIDS in Africa.

  - members of the Republican National Convention tried (and failed) to remove the party's support for One Vote '08, the ONE campaign's program to move issues of global poverty into the US election. Yet another awesome bit of strategery from Republicans, and one that the kids, I'm sure, will love.

• Live Earth wants your feedback on what they should do next.
• The Uptake reports that the DNC in Denver next year will be the most open convention ever, with just about everything streamed over the web. Very soon there's going to be a big push to get young people elected delegates to the DNC. It might be interesting to see if a couple of those young folks would consent to broadcasting their entire convention experience - even the process of getting elected a delegate - a la Justin.TV. Or at least get a crew together and cut a short documentary. If it came out more Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, I'd watch it.

There were a lot of great posts over the past few days that I missed while at Kos. Here's what's been going on in the past five days in our corner of the progressive movement:

• Over at MyDD, Jerome took my job and filed the weekend youth vote report, noting a new Washington Post poll of Iowa Caucus-goers that sampled a high amount of young folks. It's the first poll I've seen of Iowa that puts Obama ahead. The question becomes - what will be Obama's strategy to get those voters to the caucus, and how do you make them effective caucus-goers? You don't just show up at a caucus, you have to politick for your candidate. Can Obama teach enough young voters how to do that to make the difference?
  

  Also interesting in this poll is that Edwards practically tied with Hillary for the remaining youth support. Is he starting to gain ground among Millenials?

• If you can get past the starry-eyed rhetoric for his preferred candidate, Jacob Alperin-Sheriff has an interesting post on the Students for Barack Obama blog asking why Obama is the preferred candidate of young voters. I think the questions are right, though I don't know that I agree with his conclusions.
• Four Presidential Candidates will be stopping in to the Daily Show before the end of the month.
• Campus Progress reports on the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), a new organization dedicated to removing barriers to youth participation on election day. They've got some interesting ideas about registration vs. education and ideology. Not sure I agree 100%, but they definitely deserve a closer look.
• Hillary Clinton is now promoting the idea of a Public Service Academy. She also got slapped around at Yearly Kos during a question about Lobbyists.
  
• Chris Bowers at Open Left had two posts about the health of the progressive movement - Blogosphere Diversity and Why the Progressive Movement has Stalled.
• Rudy Giuliani's daughter became the next Obama Girl.
• Taking a look at the other side of the aisle, the young Republicans are getting restless.
• Last but absolutely not least, this was the viral video of Yearly Kos: