Hillary's Pitch To Young Voters Falls Flat - HuffPo

[WillyT]

<snip>

Durham, N.H. -- Hillary Clinton had planned to address two of her liabilities today -- her dismal level of support among young, well-educated voters, and her image of impermeability -- by holding a Q&A session with University of New Hampshire students, but her campaign entourage was, uncharacteristically, two hours late, sorely testing the patience of the 20 or so students waiting for her.

When Clinton did finally pull into the parking lot in front of the Bagelry here, Clinton told the remaining assembled students: "I particularly want to give young voters a chance to ask the questions they have," noting that the debate tonight is sponsored by Facebook, the networking site heavily used by students.

Clinton sought to portray her campaign as a vehicle for idealism, offering young voters the chance to participate in a crusade similar to the one Barack Obama now is seen as leading: "One of the reasons I am running for president is I love this country and I don't want to see it sort of slip away from us," she said. Clinton described in detail her efforts helping to negotiate a peace agreement in Northern Ireland and her work encouraging provision of services for refugees in Macedonia.

Over and over again, the former First Lady returned to the theme of youth.

In a critique of the Bush administration's tax and spending policies, Clinton warned the gathering that "the way the Bush policies will play out, this is all going to be dumped on you, the young generation."

Similarly, she told the students -- far outnumbered by members of the press and her staff -- that "if you look at the income data, this is the first time young people are on a trend to not do as well as their parents....we've got to get the economy producing jobs again."

<snip>

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/05/hillarys-pitch-to-young-_n_79973.html

Not exactly inspiring hope.

:shrug:

[tabasco]

1. 20 students?

Wow.

[WinkyDink]

2. Hillary isn't cool; never was. What draw would she have for young people, at this stage?

[Didereaux]

3. she would be advised to not pander to that demographic...

as already noted in every publication and yak show she is not appealing to the 'shallowness and faddish fickleness' of the kid crowd. Her best strategy is and has been to address the crowd that will listen to her dry presentations and at least have the wisdom to think about what is said(albeit it could be argued that such a thing did not help my choice Biden very much). The other almost trite truisms the kids don't vote in general elections, never have before and until they do so you have to go with history. I can see the myraid of nasty, rude, grammatically challenged, response from the spoiled brats around here pointing to Iowa as proof positive that once again the world will saved by the snot-nosed set...proof children proof!

As for Hillary, after the Biden withdrawal I am going to remain uncommitted and simple try and help where I can to remind people that NOVEMBER is the goal line...and if we are to salvage the last vestiges of this country we not only have to put up what we think is the best candidate, but equally that the one third of this nations electorate who are independents will also vote for that candidate.

The older voters and the independents are far more concerned about specific issues than they are about 'feeling good'. Any candidate who is going to win in November is going to have to have some pretty well thought out plans for the economy, Iraq, health care, immigration, and even how they are going to deal with the last administration.

So in this highly compressed mess of a primary season, it behooves the candidates ALL of them to start outlining some hard strategies for dealing with these issues.


edited for speelnig