Is 2008 the year of the youth voter (at last)?

The Associated Press

Chris Elsenbast, 17, of Ames, Iowa, worked the phones for Barack Obama. Clearly, it paid off.

Featured Topic | Posted 31 weeks 5 days ago

Is 2008 the year of the youth voter (at last)?

Every election year since the 26th Amendment extended the franchise to 18-year-olds has been heralded as the year of the youth vote. And every year has been a disappointment. Until this year. Maybe.

Young voters have been a potent force for Barack Obama's campaign, and Saturday's primary was no different. Obama got solid majorities among voters who were 18 to 24 years old, 25 to 29 years old and those 30 to 39 years old. Younger voters have also gravitated to Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

Could 2008 be the breakthrough year for the youth vote? And can younger voters shake up American politics? Or is the youth vote still little more than a lot of hype?

Ben likes: Choose or lose

Michael Barone/National Review Online

Ronald Reagan in the 1980s attracted young voters to his party. Bill Clinton in the 1990s did the same. But in this decade, George W. Bush has conspicuously failed at the important task of capturing the youth vote. Rather to the contrary. Voters under 30 were the age group least likely to support Bush in 2000 or 2004. They were the age group least likely to support Republicans when they had a good year in 2002 and when they had a bad year in 2006. The weakness of Republicans among young voters is one reason — and, you could argue, the main demographic reason — that Democrats go into the 2008 campaign as the party more voters would like to see win.

Joel likes: Obama's youth-driven movement

Roger Cohen/New York Times

Bryant Jones is from Idaho. He made clear he’d voted for Bush at least once. But he’s now had it with “my-way-or-the-highway politics” and the same old faces.

“I’m 25 and for my entire life a Bush or a Clinton has been in the executive office, either as vice-president or president” he said. “The United States is not about dynasties.” This young man represents something important. A new generation – for whom race is an issue overcome and baby-boomers are old folk fighting arcane battles and post-9/11 thinking must cede to post-post-9/11 creativity – is hungry for hope and willing to come even to places as hopeless as Greeleyville to demonstrate that.