The president campaigns incessantly for the youth vote on the public dime

Conservative activist Jason Mattera calls them “Obama zombies.” Vice President Joe Biden calls them “the most incredible group of Americans we have ever, ever, ever produced.”

They call themselves “unemployed,” “disenchanted,” and “frustrated.”
In 2008, President Obama captured 66 percent of voters under 30, compared with only 54 percent for Kerry in 2004.
But in 2012, the administration is finding this cohort a tougher sell. The Associated Press reports that “about 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in 11 years.” Meanwhile, a survey by Twentysomething, Inc., found that 85 percent of college seniors in 2012 planned to move back into their parents’ homes after graduation — a trend reflected in a December 2011 survey by the Pew Research Center that found that 53 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are living, or have lived, with their parents during the last few years.
All of that may explain the Gallup tracking poll’s showing that only 51 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds approved of Obama in July 2012, a 19-point drop from 2009.
This time around, the administration is no less dependent on young voters, but it will have to court them actively.
According to Generation Opportunity (GO), a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that works with 18- to 29-year-olds, the president and vice president, their wives, and officials from 30 different administration departments and agencies have visited high schools and colleges on taxpayer-funded trips between March 2011 and May 2012. GO documents show 240 separate trips in that 15-month period, in addition to more than 60 commencement addresses. That means an administration official visited some campus every 48 hours during that period. And Generation Opportunity did not review trips prior to March 2011, before which Obama officials may well have been making just as many visits. Young America’s Foundation reports that the president himself has spoken on a high-school or college campus once every twelve days during his presidency.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/309312/obama-s-school-vacations-ian-tuttle