If there is one candidate who has especially benefited from this convergence of youth and technology it's Sen. Barack Obama. Whatever the results of the election, people will be looking to emulate the Obama campaign, if not for the use of social networking sites that helped Obama organize, then certainly for the Long Tail of fundraising that gave him record amounts of cash.
But the use of modern technology is just one half of Obama's organizing strategy. The other half is as old school as it gets. It's low-tech, good old-fashioned grassroots organizing and here too, young people are playing an integral and leading role.
Last month, Current Correspondent Mariana van Zeller and I went down to Texas to try and get an inside look at this aspect of the Obama machine. Our goal was to get away from the punditry and inane blather that passes for campaign coverage and to get behind the laughably orchestrated events that the media pretends is not all made for TV.
Behind all this, there is a much more important game going on. It's called the ground game. And more than any other candidate, Obama's ground game is defined by youth.
In Forth Worth, we found Joe Boswell, a 23-year-old from California, who quit a corporate job in New York last summer to drive cross-country to volunteer for the Obama campaign in Iowa.
"I was the luggage guy. I was a porter. I carried Barack Obama's luggage," he said about his first job on the campaign. But Joe quickly worked his way up and eight months later, he was in charge of organizing the South Side of Fort Worth.
A bit further south, we popped in on one the largest grassroots operations in the country. The Obama campaign office at the University of Texas in Austin was swarming with student volunteers making phone calls, organizing "dorm storms" and other get-out-the-vote tactics.
"I'm inspired by Barack, but I'm almost more inspired by the grassroots phenomenon that's building," said Ian Davis, the grassroots director of Texans for Obama, an all-volunteer group that began campaigning for the senator a full year before any Obama staffers even got involved.
This phenomenon has followed Obama from Iowa and it stems from his campaign's willingness to not only allow young people to participate, but to empower them and let them take the reigns.
Studies have shown that peer-to-peer voter contact is the most effective form of political advertising. In other words, young people bring out other young people. Is there any wonder then why Obama has won the youth vote by such wide margins in nearly every contest so far?
In the end, drawing young people back into the political process may be the greatest legacy of the Obama campaign. Many critics would like to chalk this up to the candidate's rock star appeal, but the truth is that the Obama campaign has made young people feel that they are invested in the process and not just a backdrop for a photo op. And that's another thing other campaigns might look to emulate.
Darren Foster and Mariana van Zeller's pod, "Y Vote?" will air as part of a Vanguard special report on Wednesday, April 16 at 7pm PST/10PM EST on Current TV. The pod will also be available on Current.com.