======================================================================
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
======================================================================
NY Times November 14, 2011
Students Lose Zeal for Aiding Obama Again
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
LAS VEGAS — For much of the presidential election of 2008, Barack
Obama’s campaign was Emma Guerrero’s life. She was one of a dozen
volunteers who showed up at an Obama campaign office here every
night, taking time from her studies at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, to be part of what she still remembers as the most
exciting period of her life.
It was largely because of Ms. Guerrero — and hundreds of other
college students like her across the country — that Mr. Obama
assembled a formidable machine that helped him roll to victory in
2008, a triumph that included putting Nevada into the Democratic
column for the first time in 12 years.
“We did everything,” she said. “We went canvassing. Phone banking.
Cleaning the offices. Taking out my bosses’ dry cleaning. Whatever
they needed. It was such an amazing time because we all believed
and wanted him to get elected.”
Ms. Guerrero said that she did not blame Mr. Obama for the 13.4
percent unemployment rate that has gripped this state, and that
she was still likely to vote for him. But as she looks to
graduation this June and her job hunt ahead, the emotion she feels
is fear, and she cannot imagine having the time or spirit to work
for Mr. Obama.
“I don’t think I could do it anymore,” she said. “That campaign
was an amazing experience. But I don’t think I’m in the same
mind-set anymore. He hasn’t really addressed the young people, and
we helped him to get elected.”
Across this state — and in others where young voters were the fuel
of the Obama organization, voting for him two to one over John
McCain — the enthusiastic engine of the 2008 campaign has run up
against the reality of a deadened job market for college students.
Interviews here and across the country suggest that most of his
college supporters of 2008 are still inclined to vote for him. But
the Obama ground army of 2008 is hardly ready to jump back into
the trenches, potentially depriving Mr. Obama of what had been an
important force in his victory.
Mr. Obama’s advisers, while acknowledging the shift, said they
were confident that the loss of these workers would be negated by
an influx of new students who have turned of voting age since
2008. Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, said there had
been eight million voters ages 18 to 21 registered since the last
election, most of whom were Democrats.
“Their brothers and sisters started it, and they are going to
finish it,” Mr. Messina said Monday. “They are storming into our
office. Our volunteer numbers are up from where we thought they
would be.”
Yet even Mr. Obama’s supporters say it seems unlikely that the
president — given the difficulties of these past three years and
the mood of the electorate of all ages — will ever be able to
replicate the youthful energy that became such a defining hallmark
of his campaign. In the last election, Sandra Allen hosted a group
of fellow Brown University students at her home to call voters in
North Carolina and Indiana on Election Day, a common practice in
the Obama campaign. Mr. Obama won those states to the shock of
Republicans.
Asked if she would be doing similar work for Mr. Obama this time,
Ms. Allen responded: “Not now. And I will not be streaking across
the main green of any campus with hundreds of thrilled people were
he to be re-elected next year.”
Ms. Allen graduated last year and, after surveying the job market,
decided to take refuge in graduate school to wait things out. “I’m
not optimistic,” she said.
Jason Tieg, 22, a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho, voted
for Mr. Obama with great enthusiasm in 2008. But now, struggling
to find a part-time job to help him through school, he is not even
sure he would do that again. “I got a job in July as a custodian
on campus, but I lost it again when they needed to cut down.”
“I don’t know if I’ll support him next year,” he said.
It is hard to find a state that more vividly illustrates the
danger to Obama from declining enthusiasm among young voters than
Nevada. Few parts of the country have been harder hit by this
recession, with stubborn double-digit unemployment, an unending
wave of mortgage foreclosures and huge numbers of homeless. And
there are few states where young voters were so crucial to Mr.
Obama’s victory.
Mark Triola, who was president of Young Democrats of Nevada in
2008, said at the time, the Democratic organization at U.N.L.V.
was about three times as big as the Republican organization. By
last year, he said, they were about equal, a trend that students
there say has not changed this year. (For his part, Mr. Triola
graduated in the spring and found a job in the communications
industry — “ideally probably not what I was looking for, but I
don’t have any room to complain given what’s going on,” he said.)
Jolie Glaser, a gung-ho supporter of Mr. Obama in 2008 when she
attended college here, has taken to doing volunteer work for a
golf charity as she looks for a job in the nonprofit sector. Her
enthusiasm for the president has dampened.
“It’s hard to be a passionate follower of him,” she said. “It’s
easier to be a thoughtful supporter.”
Sarah Farr, 20, a communications student, could devote endless
energy to helping Mr. Obama as a student here four years ago. But
now, with graduation approaching in 2013, she said that was the
last thing she and her friends who also worked for him were
contemplating.
“I don’t have as much enthusiasm this time as I did last time,”
Ms. Farr said. “Everybody is just focused on themselves and trying
to get through school.”
“I’m scared that the major I’m getting won’t be helpful in the
future,” she said. “That terrifies me. I’m terrified that by the
time I graduate, there won’t be jobs. That’s very nerve-racking.”
And even those who remain strongly supportive of Mr. Obama here
say they see little chance of his winning this state.
“I don’t think so, no,” said Maureen Gregory, 23, a Las Vegas
native who turned up at an interview at Madhouse Coffee loaded
with buttons, T-shirts and posters from the campaign. “People in
Nevada are really angry. I think Nevada is going to be red again
in 2012, definitely.”
In 2008 Ms. Gregory sneaked away from school every day to work at
an Obama campaign headquarters. “Sometimes I didn’t get out until
midnight,” She said. She, too, could not imagine devoting that
much time to him again, as much as she admires Mr. Obama.
“I didn’t think it was going to be so bad,” she said. “I’m looking
for something to do. Even part time. I was definitely hoping Obama
could do more.”
Ian Lovett contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Kim
Palchikoff from Las Vegas.
________________________________________________
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com