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McCain Plans to Woo Young Voters

Posted on: May 12, 2008

Since the primaries are approaching to come to an end with Obama as the Democratic probable nominee for Presidential general election in November, the Republican Presidential candidate McCain wishes to catch the attention of young voters, who are often identified with obama-mania.

Many poll surveys show Democrat Barack Obama faring far better with that age bracket when pitted individually against McCain.

McCain has launched his own YouTube channel and various social networking pages — though, so far, his numbers of “friends” and supporters on Facebook and MySpace are far fewer than Obama’s.

One recent AP-Yahoo News poll found that 38 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds supported McCain, while 37 percent were for Obama.

“He’s not going to blow the saxophone on MTV or talk about boxers or briefs, but that’s part of the allure. There’s a real dignity about him in terms of his patriotism and war record.” Christopher Malone, an associate professor of political science at Pace University in New York said to the Associated Press.

It means that McCain has unapologetically stuck to his support for the Iraq war, even if it’s unpopular. McCain also wants to raise the issues relating to global warming, which is concern for many young voters.

But McCain can’t count on making big headway with young voters, because of McCain’s age and the overall “unpopularity of the GOP” with young voters, it will be difficult to conquer them.

On the other hand Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s deputy national campaign manager said to the Associated Press that “No one should assume that young voters, older voters — voters of all backgrounds — are going to side with any one candidate, so we certainly don’t feel any ownership over young voters.”

The Republicans are going to use the next month or so continuing to appeal to the young groups, which they have written off so far.

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