Zogby, Rock the Vote, Game Politics, and Students as Props

I'm getting ready to travel for the big holiday (I've got a morning flight to New Orleans to join my girlfriend's family for Turkey Day), so I've only got a few quick posts today, and tomorrow will likely have no blogging. I should be back online Friday.

• In a new national poll conducted via telephone and web survey, Zogby and Reuters say that Obama now has a 40 point lead over Clinton among voters aged 18 - 29 (60% - 20%). That seems ridiculously high and is so far outside what other pollsters have found that I've got to question the validity of the poll. The overall Democratic sample was composed of 545 voters with a 4.3% margin of error. I have no idea as to the sample size of 18-29 year olds, but it's possible that the youth sample was under 100 respondents, making it extremely volatile. It's worth mentioning in case other polls start finding similar results, but until then I'm regarding this as an outlier.
• Paul Waldman has an excellent article on the youth vote over at The American Prospect: The Youth Vote, The Culture Wars, and Barack Obama.
• I wish this was a story from The Onion, but TPM Muckraker informs us that, just in time for the Holidays, wounded Iraq veterans are being asked to return their signing bonuses because their injuries prevent them from fulfilling their contract. Seriously. I guess the Pentagon didn't get the memo about supporting the troops.
• Rock the Vote 2.0: RtV Executive Director Heather Smith has penned a column about the organization's resurgence for Esquire magazine. It's worth a read as a history lesson alone.
• A group of students and professors at Allegheny College have started the Soapbox Alliance, an organization dedicated to ending the use of students as props for campaigns through tightly controlled (and invite only) townhall events. The group notes that such practices are not only demeaning to students, but against the principles of open discussion upon which our universities are founded.
• Game Politics notes yet another instance in which conservatives are showing more cultural savvy and (and surprisingly rational thinking) than Democrats on the issue of video game violence. In today's version of this all-too familiar story, the culprit is Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and the unlikely hero is conservative pundit Adam Thierer, who calls Rockefeller out for making illogical claims linking video game violence and criminal/anti-social behavior. Game Politics does a really good job of keeping up on this stuff, including all legislative issues pertaining to video games and gamer culture. I highly recommend the site.
• Finally, Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your turkey coma.