Year of the Youth Vote?

The Year of the Youth Vote is a recent article in Time Magazine written by David Von Drehle. The article talks about the power that Barack Obama has over the youth of America. Obama has created a coalition of young voters that have been supporting him from the start of his campaign and will be with him until the end. There are so many young constituent voters that are so vitalized with Obama's campaign for president. The question that was raised for me throughout this article was, why does Sen. Obama appeal so much to the youth of America? Is it his age, speaking ability, or does he just have really good campaign skills? What we do know though, is that Obama's progressive attitude has definitely caught the eye of the youth of America. Obama isn't a hard-ass conservative, but a liberal who is looking for change and will make the changes Americans want to see. He has already been in an incumbent position of office and though he doesn't have military experience he can definitely learn. In the article it makes a good point about Obama not being fully experienced in every aspect for the presidential office, but young voters look at his lack of experience as a fresh start.
I believe that this year is the year of the youth vote. Young voters see the need for change and they want it. They aren't going to let anything get in the way of the changes that they want to see. Young voters want a better America and you don't have to be older to see that. Voters have shown up to the poles and have not only voted for the democratic and republican candidates for the general election of 08', but have voted on referendums and have become experienced voters knowing what they want to change for America. The 08' election, I believe, is going to be the year of the youth vote. I am predicting that the youth of America will decide the next presidential candidate. We will all have to wait to see this November.

Debate Reflection

On Monday, February 11, our class held a mock debate and primary election for the 2008 elections. The debate consisted of three candidates from each party and we debated within our parties. This meant that the democrats debated against each other and the republicans debated against each other. On the democratic ticket we had students who represented Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Mike Gravel. On the republican ticket we had students that represented Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.
I was on the democratic ticket representing Barack Obama. The topic that I debated about was National Security. At first I really didn't know what national security was about, but after doing some research I learned a lot more about this particular topic. I learned about our country's vulnerableness to terrorist attacks and how we need to increase our nation's security. I also learned about America's stance with other countries and how we feel about other countries. I felt that I did well debating against the representative for Mike Gravel and Hillary Clinton. The only problem during the debate was that the student representing Hillary Clinton was not prepared and I wasn't able to debate with that candidate about the issue. That was frustrating for me. Overall, I believe that my "team" for Barack Obama did extremely well and that we all were able to present our points well.
After the debate we had our elections. Barack Obama won for the democratic ticket meaning that our group had debated well and convinced our fellow students to vote for the candidate we were representing. This mock debate and election was a great learning tool for me. I learned a lot about the candidates that are running for president and what their plans for America are. Overall, this learning tool was a great experience for me and I was very happy with the outcome of the debate and the election.