“Yes we can! Yes we can!” chanted the young crowd of Barack Obama in New Hampshire, and they sure can. Young voters across the United States of America are deciding, step by step, who will reside in the White House as president in 2009. Young voters have created electricity in primaries and caucuses so far, demonstrating amazing motivation, creating publicity through their social lives and voting because they have a candidate to vote for.
Young Voters in Democratic Primaries of 2008
Young voters all over the country have played an imperative role so far in the process of electing a nominee for each party, especially in the Democratic Party. Since the first day of Democratic primaries on January 2, fresh voters in Iowa went up to the stands and voted, making up 22% of the popular vote in the state (“Entrance”). But Iowa was not a one time thing; it has happened almost constantly. 16% of California’s vote, 17% of Utah’s vote, and 13% of New Jersey’s vote was made up of voters 18 through 29 (“Results: Utah”, “Results: California”, “Results: New Jersey”).
Not only has the new generation of voters made its presence felt, their vote has been decisive in critical moments, especially in favor of Senator Barack Obama. Obama has depended on new voters as his main source of ballots. He has had victories during these primaries with exceptionally close margins because of his popularity with young Americans. Missouri, a state known for getting the president they want, was won by Senator Obama by 1%. If 65% of voters 18-29 years old would not have voted for Barack, then the up-runner, Hillary Clinton, would have won by a great margin (“Exit Polls: Missouri”). Barack’s base of polling is black people, wealthy and educated voters, and college students (“Political”). In Wisconsin’s primaries on February 19th, Barack won the state 58% to Hillary’s 41%. Exit polls of this state affirm that 20% of the respondents 18-49 years old voted for Obama (“Exit Polls: Wisconsin”, “Results: Wisconsin”). Barack has depended amazingly of his young followers and they have clearly not let him down.
Obama Support
Barack Obama is evidently popular within young voters and he should be. Barack Obama is a fresh face proposing a change in American government; he is the youngest candidate in the race, and his rhetoric is inspiring and convincing (“Democratic”).
A main reason Obama is popular with the young crowd is because he is new. He is not a Clinton or a Bush, who have dominated the White House for the last 20 years; this would be 24-28 years if Hillary wins the election (“List”). Obama is offering a new type of way in which things will get done in Washington; he often criticizes Washington’s lack of solution (Texas). “It's a game where Democrats and Republicans fail to come together year after year after year, while another mother goes without health care for her sick child. That's why we have to put an end to the division and distraction in Washington, so that we can unite this nation around a common purpose, a higher purpose,” Obama told the crowd in Madison, Wisconsin on Potomac Night, “Because at a time when so many people are struggling to keep up with soaring costs in a sluggish economy, we know that the status quo in Washington just won't do. Not this time. Not this year. We can't keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result – because it's a game that ordinary Americans are losing.” (Obama). Young people were not old enough to fully appreciate Bill Clinton’s presidency, especially people between ages of 18-29 who were practically teenagers or younger during his time. Young voters have seen the negative influence of the Bush Administration and want a change in Washington, not only a change of president, but a change of the “status quo” in American government, as Barack says. Young voters feel he is running a clean campaign compared to other candidates, no typical dirty tricks such as fake scandals regarding other candidates; this gives him an honest appearance (Gray 78-80). Since Hillary has been in the White House before, as First Lady, people do not see her as a person who will change Washington much, whereas Obama clearly speaks his mind on Washington’s way of solving the country’s conflicts.
Young voters can also identify Barack because he is the youngest candidate, just like JFK was, meaning he has spent less time in ‘Washington’s game’; nonetheless he has fought for change in the years he has (Obama, “Democratic”, Boller 296). Young people may like Hillary but she is not really new or fresh. “I love Hillary Clinton, I’m a democrat, I think she’s wonderful, but I don’t want to go backwards to go forwards,” says young Katerina Graham (“Yes, We Can”). In the Texas Democratic Debate a question was addressed to the candidates that asked their opinion on spending & secrecy, especially because of Obama’s and Clinton’s criticism of how the Bush Administration organizes this. Obama’s response was, “…I believe very strongly in transparency... One of the things I did last year was to pass a bill with Tom Coburn… we got together and created what is called Google for Government, it’s a searchable database where every single dollar of federal spending is posted on the internet… the idea is to open up the process so that the American people can make judgments about whether or not the government is doing what they are supposed to be doing with its tax payer money…” (“Hillary”, Texas). This is a clear statement in which Obama proves he wants change; he does not want secrecy, he wants transparency. Obama’s thoughts on the war in Iraq are extremely clear; he has been against it since the beginning, another difference from Washington politicians. During the Texas Debate there were many issues to discuss, such as Iraq, America’s
transparency, and the candidates opinion on immigration, after all the United States is called “a nation of immigrants.” (Sullivan 98). During the debate Campbell Brown, a mediator of the debate, asked Obama what he thought of the war: “…you were also opposed to it (war in Iraq) since the beginning, were you wrong (about it)?” She proves that Obama was against the war since the beginning. (“Hillary”, Texas). So even if Barack is a dozen years more inexperienced than some of the other candidates, his ethics and standards have proven themselves worthy of voters’ ballots and solid enough to be ‘president-material’.Yet, the reason why millions of young voters have turned to Obama as their favorite candidate is his amazing rhetoric. Young adults are inspired to vote for Barack because his words show he means what he says. His emotions while speaking are true; he really wants change and he does believe he can bring it to the people. His most admired speech is the speech he gave in Nashua, New Hampshire. He improvised magnificently; his words were inspiring to all of its listeners. He spoke of American hope: “…we’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope, but in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” He spoke of American achievements, “…a President who chose the moon as our new frontier.” Spoke about how American people can do anything, “…it was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed the trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights. Yes, we can.” (“Barack Obama: Yes We Can”) A song produced by Will.I.Am, a member of the band, Black Eyed Peas, was inspired by this speech. He got a group of approximately forty artists to sing and appear in the video of the song inspired entirely by the speech. “…instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration....” says Will.I.Am on his song. All of the artists just started coming up to him or calling him telling him they wanted to take part of the song and then ‘magic happened’ (“Yes, We Can”).
Another aspect of Barack’s popularity rises from the Kennedy family endorsement. The Kennedy family endorsement has convinced young voters that Obama is the right candidate. Barack has many things in common with JFK, they were both the youngest candidates for president and they both spoke about the public interest, rather than themselves or other candidates (Boller 296-299). “…I think each of us, women and men and children, deserve the best candidate and the best president and in my mind there’s no question that that’s Barack Obama,” says Vicki Kennedy (“Yes, We Can”). Someone else who endorsed Obama was Edward Kennedy, JFK’s brother. He spoke of how he was endorsing the candidate who inspired him and the rest of the country and how the country needed a new generation of leadership (Levs). Even though the Kennedys are not new to Washington, they still represent change and they know that a young candidate, like Obama, can be a great president. When the youth of America hears this from one of the greatest president’s brother, they agree it is time for a new generation of politics, their generation of politics.
Obama is more than inspiration to young people; he is a change all people can believe in. Young people support him and want him to be president because in their perspective he will be the next best president; he will be the next John F. Kennedy.
Gaining Support for a Candidate Social networks facilitate the new generation of voters to gain support for a candidate. Social networks have an immense quantity of youth taking part of their site. Websites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube enable campaign publicity. Much of this publicity is coming from young voters who want to gain support for a candidate.
Facebook allows users to join groups, add applications to their profile or support teams and people. This website has permitted users to support presidential candidates, thus Facebook has around a million users who have declared their support for a candidate. Barack Obama has 658, 252 supporters, making him the candidate with the most supporters in Facebook (“Barack Obama”). Hillary Clinton has 126, 634 supporters and John McCain has 78, 405 supporters (“Hillary Clinton”, “John McCain”).
In MySpace you can create your own profile, post pictures, data, add friends and comment people. Like Facebook, MySpace has a lot of participation in demonstrating endorsements from users. Young MySpace users show their support to candidates by adding their favorite candidate as a friend and writing supportive comments to them. Again, Barack Obama has the largest amount of supporters, or in this case, friends; 306, 107 (“MySpace - Barack Obama”).Hillary has 187, 606 friends and John McCain has 46,860 friends (“MySpace - John McCain”, “MySpace - Hillary Clinton”). Again young men and women are taking part of these elections, increasing popularity and showing support for a candidate.
YouTube is a website on which you can post videos. Young people today love YouTube; it is currently one of the most popular websites. Thousands of videos related to the presidential elections have been posted. Barack Obama has supportive videos such as the ‘Yes, We Can’ song by Will.I.Am which has had 5,420,382 views since it was posted on YouTube (“Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video”). Obama also has comedic videos posted about him such as the video known as ‘Obama Girl’ which has 6, 708, 229 views (“I Got a Crush...”). Hillary Clinton has popular supportive videos on YouTube such as Jack Nicholson’s endorsement ad; in one day of being posted it had 44, 892 views (“Jack”). Videos of celebrities endorsing candidates are extremely popular with young viewers, so are comical videos that raise awareness while they entertain viewers.
Conclusion Young voters will be the deciding factor in the American presidential elections of 2008. They will keep voting in masses never seen before in primary history, having Obama grasp the democratic nomination. They will keep increasing his support through social networks so that in the general elections millions of young voters will dedicate their ballot to Barack. He will reside in the White House as the United States’ president by 2009.
NOTE TO READERS: Not all the numbers, statistics and events may remain the same, all of these were recorded during early months of 2008 and have not been updated. This is an article written during March for the future but has not been published until the 30 of August, 2008.
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