Mold me, shape me, any way you want me.Photo: Drew Stearns
I am an easily influenced voter. Essentially a political ball of Play-doh that can be easily molded and manipulated in any way you want.
I know where I stand on most issues. I just don't usually take the time to find out what all candidates stand for and I have a very difficult time weighing one issue against another.
In short, I'm exactly what today's politician is looking for, an easily obtained voter that has his own blog.
In every election I can remember, I voted for the face that was most engrained into my head when I went to the polls. I know I might not be voting for the best candidate. I know it's wrong to decide it this way, but I can't get around it.
In the 2004 election my front runner was John Edwards. I saw him on the Daily Show. I saw him on Leno. Someone placed a picture of him on my car one day. His smiling face was jammed into my head and I loved the guy. I couldn't sit here right now and tell you 5 things he stood for but I was confident that he was the man I wanted in the oval office.
This year, I've got a thing for Barack Obama. I wouldn't call it a full on crush like Obama Girl, who's YouTube video I've seen on multiple occasions, but the guy is young, charismatic and has a smile that makes John Edwards look like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I've been asked four different times to join the Barack Chalk Jayhawks facebook group and each time I think harder about joining. If the election were held today, Obama would have my vote.
The good news for the rest of the candidates: that vote could change tomorrow. If I show up in class and Sam Knowlton tells me how much he likes YouTube videos and TV appearances have huge effects on the voting tendencies of people like me and the impact is even larger when you consider the increased voter turnout in young people in the last election.
Politicians are attracting young voters not by sticking to issues but by turning themselves into media icons and it just might work. Writing state of the union addresses can't be that much harder than writing scripts for YouTube. The only difference is I'll actually watch YouTube.
This was a terrific lead into what politicians are looking for. From there, your descent into apathy and love of Obama's smile scares me a little. What would it take for you to become more interested in the issues and engaged with the politicians and how could social networks help make that happen?