The marginal number of youth that supported Obama are back to watching American Idol.

[onehandle]

Not lifting a finger in the healthcare 'debate.'

Color me surprised.

Of course the Obama administration isn't exactly helping.
__________________________

"It's almost like Obama the candidate campaigned in a new way and then Obama the president is governing the old way," said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who orchestrated Howard Dean's Internet-fueled campaign in 2004. "That's of course a generalization, and it may be an unfair generalization -- WhiteHouse.gov and the federal government in general are doing some exciting things to promote online transparency, after all -- but that's the perception that people online have."

Added Kate Albright-Hanna, a former campaign staffer who led Obama's online video strategy: "During the campaign, new media and old media were on par with each other. Now, in the White House, new media is under old media."

Indeed, Joe Rospars, the Obama campaign's director of new media, reported directly to Plouffe, the campaign manager. That was the kind of high-level access that was the envy of new media departments in other campaigns. In contrast, Macon Phillips, the White House's new media director, reports to the communications department, headed by Anita Dunn, and not to Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

And while much attention is given to the Obama's (old) media strategy -- the White House's fight against FOX News, for example -- not enough attention is given to foster the online movement that Obama built during the campaign. Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who ran the Obama campaign's own social networking site, said that the resources that the campaign had compared to what OFA has now "is like night and day." Hughes said in an interview: "It's clear that more resources are needed to target every demographic group, not just senior citizens but also young voters." Heather Smith, head of Rock the Vote, which registered more than 2 million young voters last year, said although the White House has been good at reaching out to youth organizations, "that doesn't mean they've been doing a lot to elevate the voices of young people -- not yet, at least."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-antonio-vargas/obama-online-where-are-th_b_331220.html

[bluestateguy]

1. This is a doom and gloom thread

so I am unreccing it

[onehandle]

5. It's not doom and gloom. It's the truth about young people.

Unless it's shiny and new, they show little interest in it.

They think they are immortal, so heathcare is boring.

[Telly Savalas]

20. Child, please

That article gives only isolated anecdotes and hearsay to support its case -- no actual data. Moreover despite its headline, the case the article is trying to make is that the organization of the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration have dropped the ball since the election in working to keep younger people organized, not that younger people have lost interest.

You're propagating bullshit by trying to make this article say things it's not. Young people are fine. You're the one with the problem.

[sandnsea]

2. Those 300,000 phone calls were nothing

:eyes:

I think quite a few people are just oblivious to the work so many people are doing.

[juno jones]

3. Probably a good thing.

They're missing out on all the lovely concern trolling , second-guessing and sausage-style law making going on. They might remain idealistic enough to vote Obama in the next election.

Most americans aren't junkies like we are, tho arguably, this country might be doing better than it is if they were.

[firedupdem]

4. Let em keep thinking the young people have all moved on....n.t

[juno jones]

6. Exactly. I have no idea where they get this sort of thing from, really.

It is of course, totally anecdotal, but none of the young adults around me (working in the rarefied and intellectual venue of a sports bar) pay the least attention to 'American Idol', reality TV, or Fox news.

And, BTW, more than a few are very supportive of Obama and VERY vocal about public option.

[Drunken Irishman]

7. Eh...I don't blame 'em...

If I weren't so invested, I'd be turned off of politics too.

I mean, just read DU. The hate-fest gets out of control. Most students I know still silently back Obama and probably tire of hearing the bullshit thrown at him by the left and the right. It's easier to just say fuck it than put up with it.

You don't know how many times I've been close to saying, "Go fuck yourself" to a DUer or a Republican (who often act the same) and leaving the process entirely.

Maybe I will. I don't know. Maybe it's me proving how weak I am. But I'm in my 20s and I don't need the indigestion and headaches of the ugly process.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rvablue]

9. And the sky is blue and the grass is green. When has this ever been different? n/t

[rockymountaindem]

10. Who is lifting a finger?

Generation X? Baby boomers? Where are the big rallies on our side (not that they would have any effect)? Let's face it, the public in general isn't mobilizing over this debate, only the health care lobbyists and some interested parties on our side like nurses and labor unions. Why should the young people succeed where the rest of the left has failed to make its presence known?

[joeycola]

11. They want the Pres to be more engaging with them....

..............But Team Obama, however, is now in governing mode. And the grassroots, tech-powered movement anchored by young voters -- 13 million e-mail addresses collected, more than half a billion dollars raised online -- has taken a backseat to the back-room, inside-the-Beltway realities of Washington, according to interviews with former campaign staffers, political analysts and Democratic strategists.

The sentiment is echoed in a blog on the popular site Tech Crunch that's gone viral in the past few days. "On the night of your acceptance speech, just before you walked on stage, 'you' sent out an email saying 'I will be in touch soon' -- but you disappeared and all we were left with was the strange feeling you get when your older brother ditches you for his cooler friends," began the post, which blogger Edo Segal wrote as an open letter to Obama. Frustrated and disappointed, Segal wrote that OFA needs to stop asking for money ("I pay a big bill every April that should just about cover it") and that the president should govern the way he campaigned -- engaging people online then getting them offline to achieve policy goals.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-antonio-vargas/obama-online-where-are-th_b_331220.html

[hileeopnyn8d]

12. He's the President

He's the President not Max Headroom of the internet.

I don't know why, but I resent the implications that everyone of those 13 million email addresses is a young voter. Or that the online grassroots movement consisted only of young voters.

I'm 47, I've been on the internet forever. I've been politically active for a long time, and I was politically active on the internet long before the Obama campaign.

[firedupdem]

13. You can keep posting your various "opinions" about how the

president is fucking up...still won't make it true.

[NoPasaran]

14. American Idol isn't on

The 2009 season is over and the new season hasn't started yet.

[Malikshah]

18. Thank you! These folks just need to get a clue as to what's going on with today's

youth...

They come across as very 1950s-ish when they make irksome generalizations like that.

BTW-- the youth are too busy texting, tweeting, and occasionally watching Glee...;)

[Nedsdag]

19. The young people I teach do not watch American Idol.

I can think of only two students during the three years I have taught who watched the show on a regular basis.

[janx]

15. Not in my town!

The College Dems are fired up and vibrant here. The Huffington Post gets more and more tabloid as the days march on...

[PretzelWarrior]

16. STOOOOOOPIIDDDD!!!! How many callers were organized in previous administrations

like the 300,000+ who called senators/representatives on health care and public option?

Joe Trippi is on the outside looking in and being a downer. idiot.

[DrToast]

17. What an obnoxious thread title that completely mishcaracterizes the article. (nt)

[Telly Savalas]

21. He's just a conservative troll trying to stir up trouble by creating a rift between younger liberals

and us older folks.

[Jennicut]

22. Trying to create generational fighting is crap.

I am a Gen Xer and got involved in politics at 16. Bashing young people will not make them any more involved. I don't see older adults out there doing anything different then the 18 to 29 year olds.