TPM Cafe

My final guest post at TPM Cafe is live - "Youth Issues" Are Everyone's Issues. Check it out.

Sorry I've been putting most of my effort into those guest posts this week. Next week I'll be on the road for my book tour, but I'll try to keep the content here a little fresher.

My latest guest post is up at TPM Cafe - The First of Many Thirds - outlining how youth outreach and organizing is a long term strategy for the Democratic Party, and how the movement I've described thus far still has many gaps and weak spots.

Check it out.

Also of interest today - an article in Rolling Stone (which I have not yet read) about Obama's field operation. Could be quite informative.

Today's guest post at TPM Cafe is now live - The [dot] Org Boom (Beyond Obama). Go check it out.

I'll have an analysis of last nights' youth turnout up shortly.

My second guest post at TPM Cafe is now live - The Conservative Youth Factory. Go check it out.

While you are waiting for today's returns to come in, check out these quick hits.

• At The Albany Project, Phillip Anderson lets us know about two youthful primary challengers to New York State Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver.
• Marc Ambinder lets us know that Hillary Clinton appeared on the Daily Show last night.
• The College Republicans have launched a new website (that looks half decent). The blog seems to consist of repetitive bad puns about Barack Obama's name. Go join THE STORM!
• Rock the Vote alerts me to the fact that Larry King recently ran segments on the youth vote featuring Josh Groban and Wyclef Jean. Why is it that singers who are older than me (Wyclef) or appeal to my mother (Groban) get to speak for my generation? (Not to look a gift-horse in the mouth - celebrity involvement is better than no involvement, and this is really a critique of Larry King, not Rock the Vote, Groban or Wyclef).

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.