arcade fire

I'm guest blogging on TPM Cafe all week as part of their "Table for One" series. Over the next five days, I will essentially recreate in miniature the arguments laid out in my book. Today's installment just went live, and it is about the characteristics of the Millennial Generation. Hope you'll stop by.

In the meantime, here are a few quick hits for today:

• Hip Hop mogul and sometimes activist Russell Simmons has just endorsed Barack Obama. So have indie rockers Arcade Fire, who played a show last night in support of the Senator and will do so again tonight in Ohio. All of this begs the question - will the Obama campaign deploy a full-on culturally based field strategy at music events during the general election? Such strategies were shown (pdf) to significantly boost turnout in 2004.
• Meanwhile, Biko Baker wonders if Obama can be the Hip Hop president.
• Civic participation guru Robert Putnam writes about Millennials and the rebirth of American civic life in the Boston Globe.
• Heather Smith, Executive Director of Rock the Vote, looks beyond Obama in the Houston Chronicle.
• Finally, the Associated Press examines the Latino youth vote in an excellent piece that seems to be getting picked up by a lot of outlets.