The American Spectator

p> CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN br> The Democratic primary season hasn’t become so heated that the various campaign are openly stalking one another. True, there were reports yesterday about Howard Dean staffers being assaulted by Dick Gephardt staffers at Iowa events. But that shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, given the high stakes for Gephardt in that state. /p>

More surprising is the distinct lack of interest being shown in Sen. John Kerry by younger Democratic voters, particularly on college campuses.

Kerry hasn’t been rating large crowds on his occasional forays to universities. His recent trip to the University of New Hampshire drew spartan crowds and little attention. “He just didn’t network those folks the way other candidates did,” says a Howie Dean volunteer in California. “We pushed hard on college Democratic groups, environmental groups, those types. Kerry went after the establishment.”

Kerry’s campaign, many observers agree, lacks any sense of political energy beyond the hum of professionals going about their work. None of the youthful exuberance that younger volunteers and grassroots types usually bring to a campaign. Just what that feeling of joie de vivre — or lack of it — can mean became abundantly clear in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this week.

Dean was appearing at the University of Colorado. His appearances on campuses usually draw at least a few hundred, and more at his larger rallies. The Kerry campaign, attempting to put up some sort of resistance, organized a waffle breakfast — Dean waffles on issues, get it? — to take place at about the same time as the Dean event. And what did the Kerry campaign’s efforts achieve?

No more than a dozen attendees. The event was planned by Kerry’s University of Colorado student supporters, who number about, well, a dozen.

Meanwhile, Dean was speaking before hundreds of students, who cheered on Howie’s announcement that he was a metrosexual, even though he later claimed he didn’t know what that meant.

“If Governor Dean pulls this thing off [the Democratic nomination], it is going to be his outreach to younger voters that helps put him over the top,” says the Dean volunteer. “We’re the ones who are driving this thing on the Internet and on the college campuses. The other candidates aren’t doing much at all.”