Chicago Tribune: Obama hones youthful image
Strategy is to show himself as voice for change
By Mike Dorning | Tribune national correspondent
July 30, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. - From the tieless look he's adopted on the campaign trail to his Facebook-style Web page, Barack Obama, the fresh-faced first-term senator from Illinois, has cultivated the aura of youth that naturally surrounds the youngest major candidate in the presidential race. So it was hardly surprising that the 46-year-old would be the first presidential candidate onstage when College Democrats met for their national convention last week.
"In this election, it's our turn. It's your generation's turn," Obama told a cheering crowd of college political activists that filled a ballroom at the University of South Carolina student union and overflowed into a nearby theater. "Let's bring a new generation of leadership to America."
For Obama's campaign, which runs camps for young volunteers, the pitch to college students carries far greater strategic importance than simply obtaining votes from a group not known for Election Day turnout. Rather, the sense of support from the young helps Obama promote himself, even to older voters, as reflecting change and a new generation.
Just as his mixed-race heritage and relative newness on the national political scene signal voters that his candidacy represents change, so does his youth, and that perception is strengthened by a broader following among the young. Enthusiasm from a generation that is just coming of age fits with the message of optimism that Obama seeks to convey.
The Illinois senator whose bid for the White House followed the launch of his book, "The Audacity of Hope," is striving to be the first Democratic president since Bill Clinton, the self-styled "man from Hope."...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-obama-youth_30jul30,1,547657.story
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