The American Spectator

That means, at least by looking at this un-scientific data, that Senator Obama is particularly popular among this social networking generation — over four and a half times more popular than rival Hillary Clinton, and eight and a half times more popular than his perhaps-future-rival John McCain.

While older voters tend to care more about what a candidate has done in the past, young people care more about what a candidate plans to do in the future. As this generation constantly battles with the inevitable truth that the young start on the bottom rung of the ladder, the young have a special respect for those who excel and climb that ladder quickly. It goes hand-in-hand with the common dream among young people for instant fame and instant success — the same reason we buy so heavily into reality TV and the blogosphere.

Like all voters, young people identify with the candidate that is most like them. For us, that is the candidate that is optimistic and excited about the future. The candidate that knows America is the best country in the world and believes that this nation’s best days still lie ahead.

Young people do not ascribe to the cynical view that politics in Washington will always be dirty, partisan, and underhanded. Young people believe that positive change simply requires new thinking.

On top of all of this, emotion plays a major role. Young people like to connect with a candidate, and once they do they will use their wide array of connections to gather supporters from all over.

That is not to say that every young person comes to the same conclusion about what candidate to support; certainly the young are more willing to cross party lines than their older counterparts. It is not uncommon to hear support crossing party lines as candidates drop out of the race. Many avid supporters of one of the Democrats plan to vote for John McCain if their candidate loses the primary — and vice-versa.

In their race for the White House in the 2008 election, the campaigns have paid more attention to young people than ever before. And it’s working. Just as corporate America has young people spending money, some lucky candidate will have millions of young people casting votes come November.