Susan Page of USA Today is reporting that President Obama's re-election campaign launches an initiative this week aimed at rekindling the connection with younger voters that helped fuel his 2008 campaign.
The outreach effort, called Greater Together, will tap Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites and target students on colleges and universities in key states, such as the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State University and Penn State.
The initiative's website will go up Tuesday, and the first of a series of "Obama Student Summits" will be held Nov. 2 in Philadelphia, featuring Mayor Michael Nutter and Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. The summit and future ones on other campuses will solicit questions and feedback on a live Twitter feed.
Valeisha Butterfield-Jones, former executive director of Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and a daughter of Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), will head the initiative.
President Obama changed the game in 2008 with his use of new media to gain young voters and propel himself into the White House. While there are several million young people who weren't able to vote in the last election but are now eligible, the president, Messina and Butterfield-Jones will have to convince them that they have a better shot at employment with President Obama as opposed to the Republican contenders. That shouldn't be too hard, with the GOP trouncing Obama's Jobs Act and filibustering the smaller parts of it that he's trying to push through.
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