The Youth Vote Phenomenon

I saw an interesting segment on PBS today. It was featured on ‘News Hour’ with Jim Lehrer and was titled “Students and Experts Discuss the Role of the Youth Vote”. You can have a listen to this interesting discussion on PBS.org:
www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2008

We’re now at a point where nobody can deny the major role the ‘Youth Vote’ (Aged 18-29) will have on the 2008 General Elections. It seems pretty obvious to me, reading through several articles regarding this issue, that this is major victory for the Democrats.

According to RockTheVote.org:
“Young voters favored Hillary Clinton (47%) over John McCain (35%), and Barack Obama (57%) over John McCain (27%).”
'Rock The Vote' Press Release

Before I continue I have a genuine question: When will Hillary Clinton realize that it’s time to call it a day? I have nothing but respect for her but this is getting to a point where it's quite embarrassing, I can only hope that one of her (many) advisors will fianlly give her some good advice (if none have done so already), and sit her down for a reality check of sorts. Perhaps she’s not that good with arithmetic’s, I know how confusing the delegate count can be, as I’ve actually attempted to write an article about the inner workings of the Delegate Process, so I obviously know how bewildering it can get.

With that said, if the only thing keeping her in the race is the pending debacle over the uncounted Florida & Michigan delegates, I would argue that even if they were to hold another Primary, which is really the only reasonable thing to do at this point if you want to count them at the Democratic Convention, Hillary won’t be able to close the gap. So with no offense to Floridians and Michiganians, it doesn’t matter whether or not your primary delegates are counted.

And enough of that inconsequential jabbering and back to the ‘Youth of the Nation’. The main issues that young Americans are passionate about in 2008 are:

• The Economy / Jobs (Decent Wages)
• The War in Iraq
• Health Care (The Rising Costs)
• College Affordability
• Environmental Issues

Note: This was the common theme throughout ALL articles I’d read on the subject.

Now I don’t want to sound biased, but these would generally seem to be the issues that the Democrats or (so-called) “Leftists” are Campaigning strongly about. This would explain the aforementioned 'Youth Vote' margin between either one of the Democratic Candidates and McCain.

The first two (Economy & Iraq) could be split between the parties, at least to some extent based on where each voter stands individually. But there is nothing to deliberate over when you look at the other three issues. I would also like to point out that when it comes to Iraq, the majority of Americans have shifted to the “Left” side of things, so it would only be fair to assume that ‘Young Voters’ would prefer the immediate ‘Gradual Withdrawal’ option, rather than ‘Staying The Course’.

It will be interesting to see the actual effects of the ‘Youth Vote Phenomenon’ in November. In the meantime I encourage everybody to get their registration forms in order, and try to get as many people as you can involved.