I find incredibly fitting that forty years later before another critical California primary the last of the brothers Ted Kennedy and JFK’s daughter Caroline would endorse Obama. If you haven’t yet had the chance to watch Caroline Kennedy’s ad please do so, it should make any democrat proud.

And this time, it is not just a dream. This hope is real, young are turning out and voting in numbers never before seen. In Iowa voters 29 and under made up 22% of caucus goers the same percentage as those over 65 and 4 points higher than those 30-44. Young people were among the most likely to vote. So far as I know this has never happened before in any election at any level anywhere in my lifetime.

It’s not just young people either, Independents and more than a few moderate republicans are turning out in droves and changing their registration so they can support Obama. That is a winning recipe for November and for the chance to actually govern. Consistently I hear from independents, greens, republicans, and people who have never voted that Barack Obama is the one politician they like or the one democrat they could support.

Recently I was in Reno canvassing for the Nevada caucuses. I was in charge of making sure people in a 6 block by 6 block neighborhood went and spent 2 hours in a local library for Obama. I went and knocked on doors in the snow, talked to people in the street and left door hangers in the dark. There were 316 registered democrats in the precinct and they expected 40 to show up. 181 people caucuses there, more than half of them under 25. For many of them it was the first time the voted in their lives and a quarter were independents and republicans who changed their registration to caucus for Obama. The caucuses started 20 minutes late because so many of them (more than half) needed to register.

This is how we win in November, Obama has shown an incredible ability to win among voters and in areas democrats do not normally compete in. He can build up the party and the country instead of tearing down the other side. He uniquely understands this moment in America and the lessons of the our past. I hope all of you will join me in voting for him this Tuesday

Yesterday I wrote about a shift among democrats towards Obama on Electability. However, this is not merely a perception I believe Obama is in fact the most electable. This is because he has a unique ability not seen in my lifetime to win over independents and cross over republicans and to turn out new voters and young people. I am certain that he can expand and strengthen the democratic party in a way not seen since JFK.

Every two years I hear people talk about how young voters are going to turn out. When I first came to Berkeley I worked on the Dean campaign and then the Kerry campaign, both touted their strength among young people. We had meetups and house parties, and “vote or die”. Yet at the end of the day young people choose death and turn out was only high only by comparison to previous elections.

It’s not that young people never turn out; President Kennedy created an entire generation of dedicated new democrats committed to progressive ideals and public service. He inspired a young man named John Kerry to serve his country in Vietnam and then fight to end his generation’s unjust war. There’s another famous story about a brief handshake with Kennedy inspired the young William Jefferson Clinton to a lifetime of public service. Many of us here remember fondly the Clinton years of our childhood, his 92′ race was the last time young voters turned out in respectable numbers. I still remember watching the 92′ debates with my parents; I was only 6 but even then I was inspired.

The best analogy I think though is not John Kennedy but his brother Robert. Forty years ago he ran an improbable and inspirational bid for the presidency to end an unjust war, heal a divided nation, provide universal health-care, protect the environment and fight for social justice. He brought together a broad coalition of Americans of all incomes, races, and ideologies who believed the country and our politics needed a fundamental change. First and foremost though, it was a campaign of young people, the volunteered and the voted for him in numbers never before seen and the propelled him to a shocking win in the critical California primary and set him on track to become president. If any of the sounds familiar, no it is not a coincidence. Like so many other of my heroes RFK’s promise was ended by a gunman but I have always dreamed about what could have been had he lived and wished for the chance to see another like him in my lifetime. Barack Obama is that chance.

Hello Cal Dems, Eric here (or if you prefer President Pro Tempore). I decided it’s about time I started posting before I graduate. I was just thumbing through the SC exit polls and I discovered something incredible, for the first time Obama won convincingly on electability and his supporters almost universally believed he was the most electable.

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Did you know that last year Congress passed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFAT Act) of 2006? Once (if ever) this legislation is implemented there will be the creation of a free, searchable website that will list every recipient of every federal award. Did you know that this legislation was co-sponsored by Senator Obama and that he and two other republican presidential candidates are the only presidential hopefuls to sign an oath of presidential transparency? I’m in no way putting my word in for Obama (I personally have not decided yet) but it is interesting to think about the implications of this oath. From bad experience with the present administration, more presidential transparency can’t hurt. But the FFAT Act on the other hand seems positive in theory but will take an estimated $15 million to set-up the actual website. Playing the devil’s advocate, is there such a thing as too much information availability? Or is there a price we should set the cost at? A price we as a society are willing to pay (such as is in tax dollars) that could otherwise go towards say healthcare or reducing our deficit? It’s something worth thinking about.

Have you ever wondered what our 2008 presidential candidates are actually thinking?? This is a cool article at TIME.com that has an expert facial coder describe what the candidates’ expressions and facial features give away about their inner most thoughts and tendencies.

…Is the title of the latest action-packed epic of heroism to emerge from the traveling circus of wingnuttia that is the Republican presidential primary. Go check it out.

And as a side note, I especially love how this spoofs the typical wingnut fantasy that each and every action they do or do not perform is a unique and beautiful example of American Heroism (TM).

First of all, I would like to welcome all newcomers to Cal Dems and especially all the eager freshmen who are showing such an early/heartwarming interest in this campus’ greatest club – Cal Dems.

More to the point, the 2008 White House scramble is an attention grabber. Like most recent elections, choosing a president has been a horse race pimped out by the media. Needless to say, it’s harder and harder to choose my bling-adorned candidate.

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An article in The Hill claims that there’s an upsurge in political interest among young people:

After dipping to an all-time low of 36 percent in 1996 and 2000, voting among those aged 18 to 25 grew 11 percentage points in 2004, a trend that seems to be continuing. A Harvard University Institute of Politics survey has charted a dramatic change in the attitude of younger Americans since 2000. At that time, young Americans were disconnected from government and the political process, more concerned with stock options than politics. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed all that….Initially there was a dramatic surge in support for government action, political involvement and President Bush. A lot has happened since then, including Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and increased concern over global warming. Youthful attitudes toward the Bush administration have changed, but interest in political action has not.

The article ends by warning that “candidates for president ignore their potential and their communications channels at their peril.”

If you read the April 1 article referenced in Jovanna’s post yesterday, you’d see that a spokesman for Barack Obama declared that, unlike Hillary Clinton’s folks, their camp would not release Obama’s fundraising numbers. But according to a CNN article published today, only 3 days later, it seems that Obama’s people have changed their minds! Not only that, but these released numbers revealed the fact that Obama is only $1 million behind Clinton! With still a year to go before the primary, the money game is already heating up…

P.S. In (slightly) related news, I was quoted on a KCBS radio piece on presidential fundraising!