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I'm around these "shallow and thoughtless" kids five days a week, 2/3 of the year, every year. They ain't shallow, and they ain't thoughtless. They are CYNICAL if anything. They are waiting for leadership. I do not know why they don't like Palin---I suspect it's in part because of her Paris Hilton-style celebrity---but other than her, they are attracted to people who lead. Yes, they will watch the Osbournes on TV, but that's not really who they listen to.

Virtually all of my Republican students greatly admire Reagan---even before I get to him in my classes. They've all come in with arguments on both sides of the environment and taxes. They often offer new arguments and counterarguments I don't here. Some of them even produce research I haven't seen.

NEVER underestimate youth. We have ceded the entertainment medium precisely because we keep thinking they don't know what they are doing. Wrong. They want to be convinced.

You are a university teacher, as I am, so we see a somewhat different subset of the overall youth culture. I see mostly engineering students, although I have done work with a broader range of students in various colloquia and honors projects. I see a lot of cynicism, and also shallowness, and more than a mildly disturbing amount of intellectual laziness.

Still, what I see in the popular media, filtered as I know it is, disturbs me greatly concerning how critically a lot of young people look at current leadership. Obama seems almost cult-like, almost Godlike, to a sizable number of young people. I ask them why is it they are attracted to him, and I get answers such as "I like him", or "he gives inspiring speeches", or "he is concerned about us". When pressed for specifics, they can elaborate on nothing.

The last time I spoke to high school students about energy issues, I got a surprising amount of push-back for implying criticism of Obama's energy policies. The main objection seemed to be that I was being "unfair". When I asked for specifics, I got none, other than general platitudes. Anecdotal, yes, but still disturbing.