(cross-posted at Daily Kos)

In October of 2004, a couple weeks before the election, I had the privilege of attending a rally for the Democratic challenger to Senator Arlen Specter, Joe Hoeffel, at which Barack Obama was present. Ostensibly a rally for the Kerry/Edwards ticket and Hoeffel, the then-candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois overshadowed the home state candidate with his inspirational life story and his recounting of the beginning of a campaign in Illinois that had been a long shot before he won the primary. After his speech finished, Obama lingered to sign autographs and to take pictures with students like myself who had skipped class to attend the rally.

A lot of the debate in the blogosphere has centered around various aspects of Obama as he ponders whether to run for president in 2008. But there seems to be one observation that a lot of people are missing in the blogosphere: his appeal to those in my generation.

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(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom and Daily Kos)

I first became actively involved in politics when I arrived at college almost two years ago, even though I had been following the events of this country for several years before. Joining my university's College Democrats was a perfect way to participate in what was widely acknowledged as the most important election in recent memory. The first meeting that I went to - largely for incoming freshman - we packed a lecture room at the Wharton School's Steinberg-Dietrich Hall with probably close to 200 eager students. Throughout the fall, there continued to be large enthusiasm on campus for the upcoming elections. I did phonebanking and canvassing for the Kerry/Edwards campaign, along with doing volunteer work on Joe Hoeffel's Senate campaign. We held an on-campus rally for John Kerry in late September (I took the photo at the top of the crowd at the rally). I had the chance to see both Kerry and Edwards, as well as Howard Dean, Terry McAuliffe, and Bill Clinton. Vanessa Kerry paid a visit to one of our meetings. These were heady times indeed, and even though the election didn't come out our way, we increased on-campus voter turnout by 200% (this doesn't include students who lived off-campus), and we turned out an 80% majority for the Democratic ticket.

Once the election finished, though, there was a dramatic drop-off in participation. For the most part, 2005 came and went, and things only started picking up towards the end of last year, when we had Patrick Murphy come to a couple of our meetings and we held a fundraiser for our organization. Atrios and Booman were there, as well as MyDD's Chris Bowers, and frankly, I was surprised by the student turnout for an event that was not so much a campaign event as it was a social gathering.

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