The last thing that I want to do is use this blog as a platform to support, endorse, or demean one candidate or another. That is not the point of this post. What it is about is how impressed I am by what I just witnessed. I continue to be in absolute awe, nine days after the election, by the role that the college-aged populous played in the process and the outcome. I tend to become obsessed during presidential elections. I read newspaper and magazine articles, I look for information on the web, I watch all the debates, and am usually tuned into one of the news stations when I can. For the first time in my life, and I’m only 29, I found myself frequenting sites such as YouTube and Twitter and doing searches for election keywords.

Weird right? I was absolutely amazed by the creativity put on display during this election. Some of the most popular videos were professionally done by actors, actresses, and musicians coming together. Those were great. What I found myself addicted to was the thousands of videos being shot on college campuses and the sheer genius behind many of them. I know that Obama has been getting a lot of credit for the creativity of his campaign, but there were videos supporting John McCain as well. It didn’t take long for links to these videos to begin appearing in email inboxes and on instant messenger posts. Next thing I knew, election day was getting closer and campuses were absolutely buzzing with excitement, support, and anticipation.

Don’t believe me? Visit www.cafepress.com and do a search for Obama, McCain, Palin or anything that has to do with the election. You will see thousands of designs, many by college students, that appear on t-shirts, hats, underwear, posters, coffee mugs and the like.

It is no secret that a huge part of Barack Obama’s success came from his ability to embrace and energize the youth of this country. Many people are calling his grassroots campaign the best campaign ever run (this has to do just as much with his campaign manager as it does with him). What made it so different? What made it a campaign where the youth wanted to get involved and play an active role?

First, I think that the Obama team used technology extremely well. There was an iPhone application that allowed people to keep up with the campaign, read about the issues, watch speeches and interviews, and really just feel connected at all times. This app invited people to call their friends and even organized one’s contacts list by state. It kept track of who was called on Obama’s behalf and who still needed to be reached.

The Obama staff also launched a website during the Democratic Convention that allowed you to become a member, connect with other supporters in your state, and really jump into the social aspects of his campaign. Again…brilliant.

In my opinion, this immediately gave the youth of America a candidate that they felt was not so different from them. They understood that this man embraced technology and was able to be different and creative in his approach. Thus, involvement by our youth was jump-started. College campuses became a hot bed for debate and support of one candidate or the other. I have had conversations with college students about not only the candidates, but also about the issues. This has happened more in the last 4 months that ever before. These conversations are thoughtful and many times have made me take a step back to consider something I hadn’t before. This tells me that people are paying attention and getting involved.

Not only were there vidoes, blogs, tweets, clothes and conversation, but the youth showed up on election day. Perhaps the most consequential Democratic gains were reported among voters under 30. According to exit polls, 54 percent of these voters voted for Kerry in 2004. This year, they voted for Obama by a 2-1 ratio. That is a huge number.

Again, there was support for both McCain and Obama among the future leaders of our country. I believe one of the big differences in this election was that one candidate was able to jump into the middle of the conversation going on in the college dorms, and one wasn’t. Through technology, Obama backed his change message and energized a population to not only listen, but to act. He proved that he was not going to be the their parent’s president, he would be theirs.

The election is now over. Hopefully the youth that played such a pivotal role in the campaign don’t stop there. We all need to step up as citizens. Whether a Democrat or Republican, I hope and pray that we can come together as a country and work side by side to help this nation realize her greatness. We are in a tough time, but with strong leadership and the will of the people, we can come out of this stronger than we went in. God bless America, her people, and President-Elect Barack Obama.