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Why Gen Y loves Obama

  • 11 June 2008

It might be the age of Facebook, but rarely has there been more of a prime-time TV moment. Barack Obama ambled down from the podium after his speech and embraced his wife. Michelle was wearing a chunky pearl necklace and a figure-hugging purple dress. Tens of thousands of people waving 'change' signs screamed.

Bruce Springsteen's euphoric 2002 song 'The Rising' blared as Barack and Michelle mingled with their fans in the Minneapolis stadium. 'Michelle looks like Jackie O', my 20-something friend whispered to me. We were sitting in her New York apartment, a time zone away, amazed and enchanted by Obama on CNN. For the majority of young loft-living leftists in New York, Obama is our generation's JFK.

His victory was the culmination of a year of Obama-mania among kids in America. You want to know why he's the first-ever black candidate nominated to contest the US presidency? Start by talking to Generation Y. And not just in my hip neighborhood in Brooklyn. Right across America, young people have a crush on Obama. There are over 76 million members of Generation Y in the US. That makes Gen Y nearly as numerous as the 85 million Baby Boomers.

And people my age have been overwhelmingly for Obama. Twenty-somethings have voted for Obama in all but four states. In Virginia, a Republican-leaning state that Democrats want to win this time, Obama beat Hillary by 52 per cent. Apart from African Americans, Milennials have been Obama's biggest supporters.

And this mobilisation seems likely to continue. Right now, classifieds sites and noticeboards at New York unis are full of summer campaign jobs. Thousands of students are set to head off to Ohio and Florida and go door-to-door for Barack.

And if the primaries are any guide, more young people will vote in November than have for decades.

All this civic involvement seems to belie the traditional stereotypes of Generation Y. In the past, Gen Y has been described as a group who are fixated on Myspace, Twitter and our blogs.

So how has the Obama campaign succeeded in reaching out to a group who've been seen as more interested in who's leading in friendship counts on Friendster than who's going to lead the World Superpower?

Superficially, it seems his campaign won out with the traditional pop-culture crowd pleasers: sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Sex and rock 'n' roll? Last year's 'Obama Girl' song 'I Got a Crush on Obama' was named