remain on their parents’ health
insurance policies. Despite the
baggage of incumbency, Obama
retains a singular ability to forge
connections with his audiences
— particularly young people.
And the Obama team is counting on a core asset, its vaunted
on-the-ground operation, featuring an army of volunteers dedicated to identifying supporters
and getting them to the polls.
“The youth vote is an absolutely important part of our
winning strategy,” Messina says.
“Turnout is the question. That’s
why a ground game matters.”
Yet in the estimation of Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen,
one of the founders of the youth
voter registration campaign,
Rock The Vote, and a confidant
of Hillary Clinton, the Obama
campaign should be concerned
about turnout. Four years ago, a
trio of factors worked in Obama’s
favor. “You had a next generation leader who was younger,
and who appealed to younger
people,” Rosen says. “You had a
kind of foreboding sense about
the state of the world that they
were entering post-college. You
also had the threat of war.”
The foreboding is still here,
yet it may be working against
Obama this time, given that he
has been in charge for three-plus
years — a point emphasized with
vigor by Romney. In a recent
survey of 18- to 29-year-olds
conducted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics, 58 percent said
they disapproved of how Obama
has handled the economy. The
Iraq war is officially at an end,
but the fight in Afghanistan now
belongs to Obama, an issue on
which the Harvard survey found
a 48 percent level of disapproval.
“Obama now has only one
of the three things working for
him,” Rosen says. “He’s still
younger, more relatable and more
energetic than Mitt Romney.”
Last time, Obama unspooled
a narrative of deliverance from
traditional politics while running as an outsider. This time,
he has to account for a disturbing present while selling young
voters that he can improve
things. Last time, he could
build support by diagnosing
problems. This time, he has to
appeal for patience as possible
solutions arrive.
“That’s exactly what they’re
struggling with,” Rosen says.
“It’s a very significant culture
of immediate gratification. For a
guy who’s been around now for
a few years, he says it himself:
He’s not as fresh.”
Obama’s campaign operatives
describe multiple pathways
ELECTION
2012
Obama &
Young Voters
HUFFINGTON
06.17.12