The Excitement Factor

It’s easy to say that Sen Barack Obama (D-Ill) has a commanding lead over Sen John McCain (R-Ariz) in youth support. The statistics clearly prove that. According to a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, 55 percent of voters ages 18 -34 favor Obama while just 31 percent favor McCain. I think this large gap in support amongst this age group has much to do with two factors: how well the candidates connect with young voters via the internet and how excited the voters get about their candidates.

The internet is a relatively new medium used by politicians to reach potential voters. Howard Dean is considered by many the first to use the internet as the foundation for a campaign when he ran for the presidency in 2004. However, Dean’s internet following did not turn into votes and he lost the nomination to John Kerry. In any case, the infamous “byah” scream at the end of his speech in Iowa certainly didn’t help.

Barack Obama is using the social networking aspect of the internet to grab hold of young people and to keep them up to date with information about his campaign. At the time of this post, Obama had over 1.7 million supporters on Facebook to McCain’s 300,000. The MySpace margin is just as large. On this site Obama has over 500,000 “friends” compared to McCain’s 88,000.

I know what you’re thinking. How will these numbers from social networking sites turn into votes in November when they didn’t for Howard Dean? Simple. The excitement factor.

According to a poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, 44 percent of Obama’s youth supporters are “excited” about him in contrast with just 14 percent that said they felt the same feeling for McCain. Excited seems like an understatement. The feeling I have is more along the lines of ecstatic or even euphoria. How else could I explain to my mother that after 20 years of her begging me to pick up a book with no luck I just went out and bought both of Obama’s novels (Dreams from my Father  and The Audacity of Hope) and read them cover to cover?

As much as Senator Obama is gathering the youth of America together for his cause, his reach goes far past the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. For the past seven months Palestinian students have been making phone call after phone call to U.S. citizens urging them to vote for Obama. That’s right. Students in the Middle East calling American citizens to persuade them to vote for Obama. What century is this? Not only does this story show how instant world communication and news has become since the advent on the internet, but it also shows how Obama’s message of peace transcends borders and language barriers.

This Palestinian youth movement was started by Ibrahim Abu Jayyeb, a self proclaimed “political junkie” who has been following the presidential race and Obama since he emerged onto the scene during the primary season.

“I believe that Barack Obama will achieve peace in the area, in the Middle East and Palestine, between us, the Palestinian people, and the Jewish people,” said Jayyeb in an interview with Ynetnews. Jayyeb’s group of 24 students have made an estimated 120,000 phone calls to the U.S. since February.

This kind of global support for a presidential candidate is unprecedented, especially support from the youth of a part of the world we are currently at odds with. Barack Obama’s campaign is not only sweeping young adults of this country and the Middle East, but it’s getting them excited for the change it could bring about.

Alex J. Martin