Obama looks to reignite college passion for his campaign

College campuses in 2008 were electric places when it came to the campaign for president. The democratic ticket electrified young people in a way that pundits had promised, but had never delivered.

College students who showed up in big numbers for rallies and events, then went to the voting booth and played a major role in electing President Barack Obama.

Now it is four years later. Many of those excited college students are now graduates and the current crop are folks that may have never had the chance to vote in a presidential election. That means democrats need to start from scratch.

That is exactly what President Obama was attempting to do Wednesday in Charlottesville.

(Obama spoke in front of a sea of blue and orange in Charlottesville)

Here is my story for NBC12:

In a break from tradition, President Barack Obama was on the campaign trail today, even though the Republican National Convention was underway.

Charlottesville was one of three college towns, the president visited over the last two days.

College students are passionate, often a bit more to the left, but also very unreliable. They came out big for President Obama in 2008.

He needs them again in 2012.

And the president couldn't have made it any more clear in a direct pitch that group. 

“Even if you don't vote for them because you don't believe what they are peddling,” he said. “What they do hope you will is that you get so discouraged that you just stay home.

Staying home is not an option for Obama die hard supporters like Emily Schenck, a UVA student from Short Pump.

"I think he's done a great job," she said after the president’s speech.

Schenck is a political junkie who doesn't need to be convinced, but she has plenty of peers who do.

"A lot of my friends say they don't care about politics,” she said.  “But this affects our lives and I'm going to try and convince as many of them as I can."

College towns like Charlottesville often vote democratic, but republicans say they aren't ready to give up their fight here quite yet.

"We're not ceding one inch of ground to the Obama campaign," said Curt Cashour a spokesman for the Romney campaign.

Cashour argues that many of those college students, who voted Obama in 2008, are now college graduates having a hard time find a job.

"I think that realization is going hit them hard and they are really going to think about who they are going to vote for," he said.

But Emily Schenck isn't one of them. She is motivated to go work for team Obama and that means bugging every friend she has, right up until Election Day.

read and see the full story on NBC12.com

Comments

[Piaa]

Margie, do you think having selelrs do a pre-sale upgrade or renovation would assist in sales? Or just a before and after design exercise to show potential buyers what a renovation might look like and cost? Is the 203K mortgage playing into sales in anyway in the region? Just trying to get a pulse check from someone who has more experience in this arena. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks, Kurt.

[Pertunia]

Duane, the Free Trolley is popular and kinda cute but it is not a very efencifit way to spend transit dollars. There are much better ways to use the money, ways that will have a greater impact on traffic congestion relief and would also encourage more people to use CTS. Park and ride stations in Greene or Southern Albemarle with reliable shuttle service to UVa for example. Also, most CTS service is very slow and unreliable. It doesn't even come close to providing a level of service that is good enough to get people to sacrifice the convenience of their cars. Just yesterday I spoke to a friend who is a captive of CTS. He is anxious to get a car because it took him an hour and half to get to Wal-Mart to buy some clothes. This can change. I also am bothered by the notion that using tax money to bring customers from one business district, The Corner, to the Downtown Mall is serving the public. Do you know how much the trolley costs to operate? Are you also aware that the ridership figures used by CTS are very misleading? Many of the trolley riders are actually UVa staff and students who could take a UVa shuttle but they get on the trolley because it just happens to show up a few minutes before the shuttle. Many of the other riders take the trolley instead of a regular route. I often see the trolley going down West Main with a load of a passenges and then several empty buses trailing it. The trolley actually poaches fare paying customers from the regular routes. This is not an efencifit way to run a bus system. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely to change.

[chrstal026]

Obama is running on 3 Flat Tires,so he is using Bill Clinton Record to Win this Election!!!