Huffington Magazine Issue 1 | Page 61

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