From spencer willems's blog

Change: we've heard a lot of conflicting views on how to get it, even on what it should be. Both presidential candidates have seized this abstraction in hopes of wooing the electorate. What better candidates to have standing at the forefront as symbols of change? Our next president could be a young, black man with a "funny" name (as he satirically describes). Or he could be an old, white guy with a record of military service... Obviously, voters are sure to be overwhelmed by these mold-breaking candidates...

Most young people I've talked to, whether they are close friends or colleagues of mine- or strangers I shove my notepad in front of- see Obama as the only candidate for change. For them, this is no ordinary election (indeed, when was the last time we had an ordinary presidential election) because of its potential for substantive policy and attitudinal reforms within the nation. America's quarter-lifers have found their Alamo in Obama...

That includes David Batchedler. He's in Denver for the Convention. David is a senior at John Hopkins University, the president of his College Democrats chapter, and an outspoken Obama supporter. He feels his generation is hungry for change.

"Obama represents a return to the old Idealism for America that we've lost," he tells me. He spent the last eight years, or the whole of his political life, frustrated with the Bush administration. He insists he isn't the only one his age, either.

"Young people... we desperately see...