one excited, for sure. Most of
the people I know are a lot more
preoccupied with finding a job.”
The day after Griffin says
this, Obama goes on national
television and proclaims his
support for gay marriage. The
following morning when we
meet for coffee at an artsy place
in Raleigh, she is elated.
“That was fabulous,” she
says, donning a pink Planned
Parenthood T-shirt. “That really makes me feel better about
him. I’ll probably go volunteer.”
She’s touched that Obama
mentioned his conversations
with his daughters as a factor in
bringing him around.
“It’s nice to see him as a Dad
again,” she says, “a guy beyond
a politician.”
VOTING WITHOUT PLEASURE
At Obama headquarters, stories about people who worked
for him last time but aren’t doing so this time tend to be dismissed as both inevitable and
irrelevant: Some people have
moved into different phases
of their lives. New people will
show up to take their places.
Campaigns are about issues,
organization, and mobilization,
and in all of these facets the
Obama campaign lays claim to
considerable advantages.
Facebook, which proved
so useful in 2008, has grown
roughly ten-fold since. Twitter has exploded into a major
channel of information. Young
voters are much more socially
connected than the rest of the
electorate, rendering these
uniquely powerful platforms.
Last time, Team Obama had
to amass an organization on
the fly. This time, the pieces are
already there — the volunteers,
the maps, the telephone lists.
“We’ve been on the ground
for five years,” says Messina.
“What we’re doing on the
ground this time makes last
time look like Jurassic Park.”
Talk to young people immersed in the Obama campaign and they assure you that
their peers will ultimately deliver the votes. Yes, they say,
many people are restive. Yes,
this election feels more like a
choice between two politicians
with competing visions than
a transcendent event. But the
visions differ enormously, and
the stakes are high.
“I don’t think anybody thinks
things would be better without
Obama, but they are not happy
about how things are,” says
Spencer Hattemer, who took a
hiatus from college in 2008 to
work for the Obama campaign
ELECTION
2012
Obama &
Young Voters
HUFFINGTON
06.17.12