Obama and the Youth Vote

Young voters are increasingly knowledgeable about politics - a Pew Research Center poll released in July found that voters aged 30 or younger were better informed than their older peers on issues like Iraq and abortion. To connect with the young voter means understanding those issues that are most important to them. One such issue is the environment. As the economy has grown worse, the environment has been subsumed into the issue of energy security (more narrowly, the issue of gas prices). But young voters care about the environment for the environment's sake, and see it as their generational imperative to protect the planet. Obama needs to speak to the issue in these terms, talking about the kind of world he wants his two young daughters to grow up in. Another issue important to young voters, though it requires somewhat more political courage, is civil rights for gays and lesbians, support for which is very strongly correlated with age. Highlighting his support for issues like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation, could win Obama support among young voters.