And This Is Why It’s Silly To Rely On The Youth Vote

07 Feb, 2008 by Brian

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Remember the “Obama Girl”? The girl who was sooo devoted to Obama that she made a video that caught the attention of people everywhere?

Yeah, she didn’t vote. Excuse? She was sick. However, she wasn’t too sick to go to a party:

On Tuesday night, City Room ran into Ms. Ettinger at an election-watching party in Greenwich Village and asked how things went at the polls.

“I didn’t get a chance to vote today because I’m not registered to vote in New York,” she said.
So where is Obama Girl registered to vote?

“New Jersey.”

Um, but didn’t New Jersey also hold a primary?

True. The problem, she explained, was that she was sick in New York City and was unable to get back across the Hudson River to the polls in Jersey City.

“I was in Arizona for the Super Bowl — every time I get in the airplane I get sick,” said Ms. Ettinger, who did manage to make it to the Svedka Fembot election returns party at Chinatown Brasserie at Lafayette and Great Jones streets. (The Fembot campaign for the White House, the Svedka marketing manager assured us, is not a commentary in any way on Hillary Rodham Clinton, who defeated Mr. Obama in both New York and New Jersey.)

Ms. Ettinger said she had dragged herself out Tuesday night under duress only because she was scheduled to perform at the Bowery Poetry Club. The previous day she had hit the streets of New York to interview voters, where a Daily News photographer snapped her picture on Park Avenue.

And how did she feel about missing the opportunity to cast her ballot for her one and only? “I’m a little upset but I really couldn’t help it today,” she said mournfully.

I’ve told this story over at my own blog several times, but since most of you have never even heard of me or my blog, I’ll tell it again.

Back in 2004 when John “I Served In Vietnam” Kerry was running against Bush and immediately in the wake of Michael Moore’s crockumentary, several young people who worked with me (I was a restaurant manager at the time) were so fired up that they were going to make sure to vote. Come hell or high water, they were going to make a point to set their alarm clocks for something other than noon, leave their dorms, and go to the polls. It was a done deal, they swore to me.

What happened? Yup, you guessed it, they never made it. I don’t remember the exact reason, but it was basically an “I forgot” type of thing.

Now, as I said, I was in restaurant management, and had been for nearly twenty years. I’ve seen this same scenario played out each and every election, and when these little hippie-wannabees said they were going to go vote, I just chuckled and said “yeah, right”, because I knew they wouldn’t go, and that they’d have some creative excuses for not doing so.

I’ll give props to the Obama girl. Being too sick to vote is a new one to me, but the results are the same: you trust the youth in America to put you over the top at your own peril. They will not turn out for any politician, no matter how fired up they are and no matter what they are promised.

Brian runs the blog “Liberty Pundit“. Drop in and say “hi”.