Young voters' interest fizzles
According to the Detroit News.
Hopes for a youth voter boom in 2004 are fading with the campaign of former Democratic front-runner Howard Dean. The legions of young voters inspired by his Internet-focused campaign are dropping out of the process rather than switch their allegiance to another candidate, according to Michigan pollsters.
Not to mention the Kucinich supporters, who of course the News DIDN'T mention.
This may explain the whole Dean bubble and burst phenomenon. The Rovian machine saw the possibility of a large, active youth movement that could threaten their dynasty in 2004. So they fed them a fiery candidate to get them excited, built him up in the news, made sure he got plenty of donations. Students signed up in big numbers, and were excited about "their" candidate. Then the powers that be turned on Dean, and practically destroyed his candidacy in about a week. (If Bush's "Fool me once..." babble were replayed as often as Dean's "Yeah!", he'd be toast too.) Of course, those who supported Kucinich or Clark are feeling a similar discouragement, even if their bubble never got quite as big. So now, the most enthusiastic young people who might have led the regime-change charge are disillusioned. And they've been fed the alternative of John Kerry, which has to just disillusion them further.
According to the Detroit News.
Hopes for a youth voter boom in 2004 are fading with the campaign of former Democratic front-runner Howard Dean. The legions of young voters inspired by his Internet-focused campaign are dropping out of the process rather than switch their allegiance to another candidate, according to Michigan pollsters.
Not to mention the Kucinich supporters, who of course the News DIDN'T mention.
This may explain the whole Dean bubble and burst phenomenon. The Rovian machine saw the possibility of a large, active youth movement that could threaten their dynasty in 2004. So they fed them a fiery candidate to get them excited, built him up in the news, made sure he got plenty of donations. Students signed up in big numbers, and were excited about "their" candidate. Then the powers that be turned on Dean, and practically destroyed his candidacy in about a week. (If Bush's "Fool me once..." babble were replayed as often as Dean's "Yeah!", he'd be toast too.) Of course, those who supported Kucinich or Clark are feeling a similar discouragement, even if their bubble never got quite as big. So now, the most enthusiastic young people who might have led the regime-change charge are disillusioned. And they've been fed the alternative of John Kerry, which has to just disillusion them further.
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