Rosey McAdams, UW-student, talks to a friend as she waits outside the Kohl Center for the doors to open for a campaign rally by presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday in Madison.
Posted on 02/13/2008 4:16:38 PM PST by SJackson
Rosey McAdams, UW-student, talks to a friend as she waits outside the Kohl Center for the doors to open for a campaign rally by presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday in Madison.
It was no accident that Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's first appearance in Wisconsin this week was at the Kohl Center in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
And even before Obama could get there, his rival, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, had already sent her daughter Chelsea on a two-day tour of college campuses around the state.
Both events drew big crowds of young people. More than 17,000 people, many of them students, filled the Kohl Center to hear Obama Tuesday night in the largest such pre-primary event in Wisconsin history.
Chelsea Clinton's appearance, meanwhile, was a prelude to at least two more events focused on campus voters, including an appearance by Sen. Clinton herself on Monday and an event featuring former President Bill Clinton Thursday.
The attention is flattering to many students casting a presidential ballot for the first time.
"I think it shows they're paying attention to us," said Nicole Neis, 19, a sophomore majoring in biology who said she is trying to decide between the two Democrats and is leaning toward Obama because he's come here twice -- once in October and again Tuesday night.
"I know Madison isn't the biggest city in the country, but it does show to me that he's willing to come out and talk to us," Neis said.
Young people -- especially college students -- will be among the most heavily courted voters in next Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary.
Unlike their peers nationally, who have often been written off as unreliable compared to older voters, Wisconsin students vote in large numbers regularly. And in recent years, those numbers have been critical to victories in some of the state's most hotly contested races.
"As a campaign operative, you look at where you can go to boost turnout quickly and that's college campuses," said Democratic campaign consultant Mike Tate. "If you can find a message that they can relate to, Wisconsin students vote."
Tate knows that better than most in Wisconsin. He headed Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's primary bid here four years ago, which generated heavy turnout at the UW-Madison and other campuses, though it failed to catch on elsewhere in the state.
Tate also led efforts two years ago to block a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Although Tate's side lost, student voters in several legislative districts helped unseat a half-dozen Republican lawmakers who backed the measure.
But the textbook example of campus campaigns in Wisconsin came in 1998 when U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin won her seat on the strength of voter turnout from the UW-Madison dorms -- which featured precinct captains on every dormitory floor. Those same students provided the margin of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold's re-election victory in a tight race against Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann.
Both Clinton and Obama are aiming at that student base in Madison and statewide.
In addition to stops in Milwaukee and Madison on Monday, Chelsea Clinton spent most of the following day hitting campuses in La Crosse and Eau Claire. At the same time on Tuesday, Michelle Obama, the candidate's wife, stopped at St. Norbert College in DePere, just outside Green Bay.
The smaller campus stops make sense because while "UW-Madison gets a lot of the attention, there's a lot of voters to be had at UW-Whitewater, UW-La Crosse, Eau Claire, and elsewhere," Tate said.
Both campaigns say they are counting on students to help put them over the top next Tuesday.
Young voters have been particularly critical to Obama's campaign. An analysis of voting data by the New Voters Project showed that in all the states Obama won in the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests, he was heavily favored by young voters. Clinton showed similar gains, but more narrow margins, among young voters in the states she won that day.
While both Clinton's and Obama's campaigns lay claim to the student base, Obama appears to be more aggressive in lining up their votes.
Obama is the only candidate with an office on the UW-Madison campus. In what Gov. Jim Doyle, an Obama supporter, called the "most unique campaign headquarters in the U.S.," Obama's campaign is being run out of Laundry 101, 437 W. Gilman St., a laundromat where students can buy beer while they wash clothes. The office is full of volunteers throughout the day as students come and go between classes.
Clinton's student volunteers, by comparison, have to be picked up on campus and shuttled to an office in the AFSCME headquarters on the city's far west side.
Heather Colburn, a spokeswoman for Clinton, maintained that students are "a key focus of what we're doing on the ground." She added that a Students for Clinton chapter has been operating on the Madison campus since June. The chapter sent students to help campaign in neighboring Iowa before turning their sights homeward.
At both Obama's rally and Chelsea Clinton's appearance, many students said they are eager to see Clinton, in part because of her status as the first major female candidate for president.
"I'd love it if she came here," said John Ostrowski, a 23-year-old double-major in English and philosophy at the UW-Madison who came to the Memorial Union to see Chelsea Clinton.
Ostrowski said he's leaning toward voting for Sen. Clinton, but he also likes Republican Sen. John McCain. Both score high with him for their foreign policy experience, but he said he also likes Clinton's universal health care proposal more than Obama's more limited approach.
Ostrowski also gave Clinton the edge when it comes to experience and attitude. While many in Tuesday's crowd said they were overwhelmed by Obama's personal appeal, Ostrowski complained that Obama "just comes across as a little arrogant, a little snobbish."
But at the Kohl Center, where thousands of students signed up via text message for campaign alerts, Laura Klein, a 21-year-old psychology and women's study major, acknowledged that supporting Obama had become the latest campus craze.
"It's totally cool. It's hip," she said.
I can't think of a better reason to choose a candidate. But wait, with 20 year old females in the mix, Bill is sure to visit, as many times as necessary.
Repubs get a nominee who will likely need a new hip.
Since we are going to use the American Idol model to select the President this year, the question is, when will Simon show up?
Hopefully something new and shiny will come along to distract them. Doesn’t take much.
Obamamania. If you play his speeches backward they say.”I buried Hillary”.
Well, I can remember in 1968, when I was an 18-year-old college freshman, and we all thought that Eugene McCarthy was just like totally groovy.
That's the dem model, if McCain allows it to dominate the race, he'll lose. Obama is cute. If the GOP, sorry McCain, the GOP is on vacation, forcefully present the issues, he can win. Obama is vulnerable there. A post of mine from another thread as to what you get with Obama, based solely on previous Obama statements. It's a radical agenda that can be defeated. The racist nature of his religious belief system is another issue, a post on that here
A living ConstitutionPublicly funded partial birth abortion.
Abortion on demand for minors without parental consent
An assault weapon ban which includes a ban on "assault weapon ammunition", along with restricted access to handguns and ammunition bans.
An end to discrimination against gays in society and the military
Increased reliance on the UN
A reduction in military spending
Normalization with Cuba
Tougher enviornmental laws including tough emission schedules
No drilling in ANWAR
Increased Federal funding of railways, including local commutor lines
A more progressive income tax
A cap on consumer loan interest rates and ATM fees
Universal single payer health care
Supplemental food programs and increases in food stamp, Head Start, school lunchs-you get the idea relative to existing programs.
Funding to develop affordable housing, restrictions favoring low income at the expense of market rate housing.
An end to discrimination in lending based on source of income
Expanded welfare
Insreased aid to education
Hate crime legislation and an end to racial profiling
Increased funding for tha arts
Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment
Right to strike for Federal employees
Pay equity for women
Federal living wage
Drivers license and path to citizenship for illegals
Welfare, social security and medicaid to illegals
You can find more at IVI-IPO 2004 US SENATE QUESTIONNAIRE or any of the issue sites. He has positions. Unlike Hillary, the Republican candidate simply has to capitalize on them.
Well, I can remember in 1968, when I was an 18-year-old college freshman, and we all thought that Eugene McCarthy was just like totally groovy.
Well, I can remember in 1968, when I was an 18-year-old college freshman, and we all thought that Eugene McCarthy was just like totally groovy.
Sort of like the 1 or 2 sentence vanity posts on FR.
Keep asking these lemmings what his accomplishments are in the past five years. Don’t let them tell you he’s full of hope to change the future, or he’ll change the future of hope or he hopes for our future to change, or he brings needed change for our future to hope.
Stick with it. Ask them what his accomplishments are! -Wb
Which Hollyweird dingbat (IIRC it was either Janene Garofalo or Whoopi Goldberg) who gushed “It’s not cool to be against Bill Clinton”.
Guilty.
LOL!
For the pic: guilty!
You beat me!
Then the limos drove up right in front of me (for his departure) & I staked out prime turf right by the limo obviously intended for the Candidate, pressed up against the metal sub-panel on the driver's side. Sure enough, back out of the building he comes a few minutes later & hops in the (open) limo to greet the crowd (& shake his fist at the F-4 aircraft flying out of nearby Davis-Monthan AFB for Vietnam). That's how I got to shake RFK's hand.
He would have won that nomination & probably the election...but, in Los Angeles a few weeks later, Sirhan Sirhan changed all that...
Obama's life is in grave...Arkancidian...danger...
Bring back the poll tax. I told my young son yesterday that only property owners should be allowed to vote. heh
That’s one positive coming out of the Ron Paul fascination alot of young people seem to have. Sure, a decent amount were just anti-war and knew the Dems only used it for political advancement. But it seemed to me (and I live in the Bermuda Triangle of college towns) that more and more of the Paulites were understanding the core libertarian principles of small government, personal responsibility, low taxes, free markets, ect. And as Reagan said, “Libertarian is at the core of conservatism.” So while I’m sure the youth vote will always lean left, Paul’s contrarian (albeit sometimes illogical) ideaology is planting seeds that one day may sprout the next Russell Kirk or George Will.
No kidding. I don't know what has happened. When did we become FreeVanity.com?
Regards
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.