In Monday’s “”Barack-ing the vote,”” Alyson Hill was quite astute in pointing out Obama’s strong attention to America’s youth. However, I do disagree with the stated perception that Barack doesn’t dismiss us “”as a bunch of idealistic know-nothings.”” On the contrary, it appears that Obama is counting on us to generally be na’ve and rather uninformed. Indeed, Barack supporters have an extraordinary tendency to fit this role, and as opposed to youth supporting other candidates, youngsters cheering for Obama rarely know much at all about him as a leader. Sure, all the typical left-wing stuff sounds as fashionable as ever, but for healthy young adults more government health care means higher taxes and even less money – give college students equivalent “”taxes”” on the money their parents give them and we’ll see how eager they are to bloat the central government.

Hill even admits that Obama’s image is a campaign tactic used more by him than any other candidate. Now ask yourself: What’s more important, the image of competency or actual competency? The na’ve kid will go against the wrinkly hag with a screaming yell and a temper, and forego other smaller candidates, for an apparent winner who looks young, is charismatic – good at making others believe in what he says (regardless of whether or not it is true) – and hasn’t had enough experience in national politics to highlight his weaknesses.

Truly, where is the logic in voting for a candidate because he seems to ask you to vote for him more than anyone else does? If Jimmy Carter appeared in the headlines more with the word “”college students”” more often than Obama, should students automatically vote for him instead? Another apparent strength of Obama is his skin color, which prompts many students to choose him simply because they feel it is time to prove America should have a black president. I don’t have much of a problem with this attitude since it balances out other voters who will do the opposite, but what kind of an achievement is it that young voters will support Obama on such artificial grounds? Indeed, there seems to only be one achievement that stands out regarding Obama: By supporting a candidate so strongly using minimal logic, the “”idealistic know-nothings”” get a chance to feel that they actually are wise enough and have enough power to further their ideals. Bravo.

Daniel Greenberg
political science junior