April 7, 2008

McCain Youth Redux

Posted by Ally Klimkoski at 12:19AM

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Reprints
• Share

My mom loves John McCain and she is definitely younger than he is, does that mean she's a young voter? That is a pretty tough question if you think about it!

But seriously, John McCain appeared this morning on FoxNews Sunday talking about his connection to young voters. (Thanks to C&L for the tip off)

“…It’s pretty clear that Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have energized the younger voters and I believe I have and I believe I’ve got to compete on that grounds too. That’s why I go on shows that young people watch, so I’m not sure that the old red state, blue state scenario that prevailed for the last several elections really works.”

I haven't seen Sen. McCain on adult swim on the cartoon network yet but I'm guessing the animators are totally on it.

A few weeks ago I talked about Megan McCain's outreach to young people through her blog. AP also picked up the story and included information about the disclaimer the Blogetts give saying that Megan's blog is in no way affiliated with the campaign.

Thus far that is the only thing that has anything to do with McCain and youth. Sadly the campaign has not placed anything friendly to youth on the website about how young people can get involved. Women? Donors? Heck, even Lawyers get a line item. Young people... not so much. Check it out for yourself here

Others who are or who have? Giuliani, Huckabee, and most notably Ron Paul, who still hasn't dropped out of the race.

I don't know the extent to which young people are participating in McCain's campaign because I tend to roll solo. But I can tell you that young people are turning out in droves and it does wonders for candidates who recruit recruit recruit! And not just in votes either -- I'm talking some serious moral.

Many candidates today are doing outreach to young people. I'm curious what you all want speaking from the young perspective.

Obama's campagin provides a lot of leadership positions, Gen O, a fellowship academy, and of course students for... Clinton has HillBlazers featuring a Spring Break in hot Pennsylvania, and Ron Paul has his own Revolution.

Keep your eyes pealed for the new exciting John McCain youth program, everybody! According to the interview he's on all kinds of shows the young people are watching these days. I'm excited to see him Pimp his Campaign Bus and totally jazzed about what must be an upcoming South Park appearance.

When you look at political candidates that you support, what do you want to see from them in regard to youth outreach?