Youth Vote

Paul Rogat Loeb's op-ed on March 15, "To win, Democrats must re-energize the youth vote," was an excellent discussion of the importance of young voters to the 2010 elections. In fact, Democrats need to energize the youth vote to win not just in 2010 but in 2012, 2014 and beyond. By 2015, 33 percent of the electorate with be the millennial generation -- no small number of voters. Fortunately for Democrats, young voters can be reached through a number of media -- phone, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and an ever-growing number of other social networking tools.

In his efforts to energize young voters, President Barack Obama is depicting Republicans as obstacles to an affordable college education, which could be a crucial issue in his re-election campaign. Mr. Obama now wants Congress to extend a law that cut interest rates on a popular federal loan program for low- and middle-income undergraduates. If the law expires, the rates will double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. For Mr. Obama, this is a question of values, as he said in a recent weekly radio and Internet address.

In his efforts to energize young voters, President Barack Obama is depicting Republicans as obstacles to an affordable college education, which could be a crucial issue in his re-election campaign. Mr. Obama now wants Congress to extend a law that cut interest rates on a popular federal loan program for low- and middle-income undergraduates. If the law expires, the rates will double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. For Mr. Obama, this is a question of values, as he said in a recent weekly radio and Internet address.

President Barack Obama's re-election largely hinges on his ability to play young voters for suckers -- again -- and whether Mitt Romneywill let him. In 2008, Mr. Obama won the youth vote by better than a 2-1 margin, 66 percent to 32 percent. Even more impressive, he actually expanded the share of young voters going to the polls by some 3 million. Those extra voters helped tip several swing states. Mr. Obama owed his success to being a charming political unknown onto whom young people could project their hopes.

If the Democrats don't get the youth vote, they're toast. That happened in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, where young Obama voters stayed home in droves. It's an ugly conceivable future, portended by a new Harvard poll that shows 41 percent of young Republicans planning on voting in November, compared with 35 percent of young Democrats and 13 percent of independents. A recent Pew poll showed a similarly disturbing pattern: Young voters still prefer the Democrats, but their margin is slipping, and their enthusiasm level is worse.

Across the country, the youth vote is down. Registration is low. Voter enthusiasm for Republican candidates has been lackluster. Unless that candidate's name is Ron Paul. The 76-year-old U.S. representative from Texas has energized — and gained —young voters at a time many people under 30 are turned off to politics. Paul's reputation for attracting young voters is so pronounced that supporters say it's sometimes rare to see older adults at his rallies. Many times, the folks in the loud cheering sections at his events are called simply "the kids.

Bill Clinton played saxophone on Arsenio Hall's TV show and took his case for change to fans of rap and "death metal" music on MTV.Mr. Clinton also was the first major-party presidential nominee to be born after World War II.Meanwhile, the economy was in the toilet and billionaire outsider Ross Perot was keeping the race entertaining.So, many pre-election analysts figured Mr. Clinton was a shoo-in to earn a heavy "youth vote" Tuesday.Did it happen? The answer is a definite maybe.There is no doubt that the Bill Clinton-Al Gore Democratic ticket turned around the 1980s trend of young people, like the population at large, favoring the Republican Party.

DeJanee Fennell hears the excuses. Young people are apathetic. Young people are sick of politics. Young people have given up. The thing is: Fennell doesn't buy that. The 20-year-old junior at Morgan State knows President Barack Obama needs the youth vote to win re-election in November, and she intends to help deliver that to him. "I still believe in Barack Obama," she says. "I think he has my best interest at heart. " Compared with 2008, statements like Fennell's are growing increasingly rare.

DeJanee Fennell hears the excuses. Young people are apathetic. Young people are sick of politics. Young people have given up. But Fennell doesn't buy that. The 20-year-old junior at Morgan State University knows President Barack Obama needs the youth vote to win re-election in November, and she intends to help deliver that to him. "I still believe in Barack Obama," she says. "I think he has my best interest at heart. " Compared with 2008, young, motivated voters like Fennell are becoming a rare commodity.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for cloudy skies with rain developing later and a high temperature around 50 degrees. It is expected to be rainy tonight with the temperature rising to around 54 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Five groups vie to run city rec centers : Two groups that submitted bids would charge significant monthly fees for after-school programs that have traditionally been free.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for cloudy skies with rain developing later and a high temperature around 50 degrees. It is expected to be rainy tonight with the temperature rising to around 54 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Five groups vie to run city rec centers : Two groups that submitted bids would charge significant monthly fees for after-school programs that have traditionally been free.

Across the country, the youth vote is down. Registration is low. Voter enthusiasm for Republican candidates has been lackluster. Unless that candidate's name is Ron Paul. The 76-year-old U.S. representative from Texas has energized — and gained —young voters at a time many people under 30 are turned off to politics. Paul's reputation for attracting young voters is so pronounced that supporters say it's sometimes rare to see older adults at his rallies. Many times, the folks in the loud cheering sections at his events are called simply "the kids.

DeJanee Fennell hears the excuses. Young people are apathetic. Young people are sick of politics. Young people have given up. But Fennell doesn't buy that. The 20-year-old junior at Morgan State University knows President Barack Obama needs the youth vote to win re-election in November, and she intends to help deliver that to him. "I still believe in Barack Obama," she says. "I think he has my best interest at heart. " Compared with 2008, young, motivated voters like Fennell are becoming a rare commodity.

DeJanee Fennell hears the excuses. Young people are apathetic. Young people are sick of politics. Young people have given up. The thing is: Fennell doesn't buy that. The 20-year-old junior at Morgan State knows President Barack Obama needs the youth vote to win re-election in November, and she intends to help deliver that to him. "I still believe in Barack Obama," she says. "I think he has my best interest at heart. " Compared with 2008, statements like Fennell's are growing increasingly rare.

AARP, the highly profitable "nonprofit" that purports to represent retirees, is at it again, plotting against youth. It hates the Republican plan to control insane Medicare costs for seniors, urging its millions of members to "tell Congress to vote NO" on the GOP budget. But it also hates the Democratic plan, saying it would depend on "arbitrary spending targets. " The only possible conclusion is that AARP wants Medicare to maintain its ruinous course until, oh, about 2040, at which time the government will present everybody left alive with a multitrillion-dollar invoice.

Paul Rogat Loeb's op-ed on March 15, "To win, Democrats must re-energize the youth vote," was an excellent discussion of the importance of young voters to the 2010 elections. In fact, Democrats need to energize the youth vote to win not just in 2010 but in 2012, 2014 and beyond. By 2015, 33 percent of the electorate with be the millennial generation -- no small number of voters. Fortunately for Democrats, young voters can be reached through a number of media -- phone, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and an ever-growing number of other social networking tools.

WASHINGTON -- In the 1992 presidential campaign, a saxophone-blowing, star-shaded Bill Clinton managed to rouse a burst of political interest among the voters of Generation X, until then indelibly associated with apathy and alienation.The attention Candidate Clinton paid to young people and to the issues of youth -- his pioneering visits to MTV and Arsenio, the Clinton-Gore cross-country bus trek -- helped him garner 44 percent of the youth vote, making young people Mr. Clinton's second-largest voting bloc, after the 60-and-up crowd.

If the Democrats don't get the youth vote, they're toast. That happened in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, where young Obama voters stayed home in droves. It's an ugly conceivable future, portended by a new Harvard poll that shows 41 percent of young Republicans planning on voting in November, compared with 35 percent of young Democrats and 13 percent of independents. A recent Pew poll showed a similarly disturbing pattern: Young voters still prefer the Democrats, but their margin is slipping, and their enthusiasm level is worse.