We all knew that RockTheVote was really partisan. The assumption is that 18-30 years olds are mainly Democrat so any effort to turn out the youth vote will help the Democrats.
Its just that they haven't been so blatant about their biases before. With both candidates denying that they want a draft the only reason this is surfacing is to tie in with the Dems dirty trick email campaign.
They are joined in this by a group called the alliance for Security.
The Alliance for Security aims to provoke thoughtful and penetrating conversation on national security issues including the possibility of a draft, the war against terrorism, our foreign policy, and the real consequences of war.
This sounds neutral enough but once you start looking at the opinions and cartoons they carry they are all very anti-Bush.
Funny thing - The Captains Quarters found an old proposal of Kerry's to institute mandatory service for high school graduates in exchange for college tuition.
As part of his 100 day plan to change America, John Kerry will propose a comprehensive service plan that includes requiring mandatory service for high school students and four years of college tuition in exchange for two years of national service
The entry is gone from Kerry's web site but it is cached here.
Here's an interesting tidbit from the latest Pew poll.
The horse race among young people has seesawed dramatically since August, when Kerry held an 18-point lead (53%-35%). This month, Bush and Kerry each have held sizable leads among those younger than 30, underscoring the volatility of voters in this age group. In 2000, young voters backed Gore by a slight margin (48%-46%), according to VNS exit polls.
If this holds then the Democrat's register the youth strategy might be a disaster for them.
Here's more about their strategy from Talking Donkey.
On the front page of the Sunday NYT, Ford Fessenden reports on a Times study of registration numbers in the two most crucial battleground states, Ohio and Florida. And it confirms two things I've felt strongly about, but had little more than anecdotal evidence to support: (1) this is going to be a high-turnout election (which in itself is helpful to Democrats), and (2) Democrats are way, way ahead in the ground game.
TechCentralStation points out that the worst place for someone to hide out from a war is as a fighter pilot.
The old story on Bush's military service is that his father pulled strings to get him in. He had no aptitude to be a fighter pilot but his father pulled strings there, too. Bush deliberately chose a type of aircraft that was unlikely to be sent to Viet Nam. After a couple of years he stopped showing up altogether, disobeying a direct order to have a physical. At that point he should have been forced into joining the Army but his father pulled more strings so that he could drink his way through college.
The emerging story is that Bush got in easily - there was no waiting line for college graduates wanting to be pilots. He was an excellent pilot. He inquired about serving in Viet Nam but did not have enough flight hours to qualify. After a couple of years he requested permission to transfer to Alabama to help run a senate campaign. His superiors were over-run with pilots returning from Viet Nam and thought that this was fine. He later asked for early release in order to attend graduate school and was granted this. Again, they were overrun with pilots and were glad to get one off of the books. No strings were pulled and Bush's superiors were satisfied with his performance throughout.
According to USAToday, most Americans think that Dan Rather made an honest mistake and should not be fired.
The poll also found 55% of people think they can trust CBS News to report the news accurately; 41% said they can't. Asked about general media accuracy, 52% were positive, 47% negative.
More people think that they can trust CBS than trust the media in general? That's depressing.
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