October 7, 2008
A new USA Today/MTV/Gallup poll has found that young people prefer Barack Obama by a margin of 61 percent to 32 percent. What is striking about this is nowhere in the interview with some of those polled does a young person articulate what Obama believes.
Lisa Kettunen, 24, of Otego, New York, is an administrator at Hartwick College. An administrator at age 24? She says, “We have a lot of really great ideas and hopes for change and Obama is really speaking to what we want.”
And what might that be? She doesn’t say. And how knowledgeable can a 24-year-old be about world affairs, world history and the intentions of those who wish to destroy us?
The key is turnout. Young people have historically failed to vote in numbers anywhere near their numbers. Maybe they will this time and if they do and if they mostly vote for Obama, the election could be a landslide.
The economy dominates, not terrorism. But both are important. I worry about an electorate that chooses feelings over substance.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
