Senator Barack Obama will need a strong turnout among young voters to win primaries, and he is working hard to keep them excited. Scott Malone reports for Reuters:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama talked about the future on Saturday to members of an increasingly influential group that may well decide his own: young voters.

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While he didn't make an overt bid for votes during the commencement address, the Illinois senator chose his audience wisely. Younger voters are particularly important for Obama to focus on, according to political analysts.

"It's a critical part of his campaign," said John Della Volpe, polling director at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. "He has a significant lead among that demographic group, especially the young people on college campuses. That is a critical part of his strategy and a critical part of his base."

Read the whole story at the link above.

If Obama is truly counting on the young voters, he is in for a rude awakening. Single 18-24 year-olds simply don't make it to the polls. Now, long 'bout every Presidential cycle, we start hearing how this is "the year of the Young Voter," and projects like "Rock the Vote!" promise that now, suddenly, young people will cast aside the chains of their apathy and go to the polls in droves to seize control of their futures blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda.

Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt, turn the page. AIN'T. GONNA. HAPPEN.

Young people typically have less interest in politics, and more interest in other things. They just do not show up in significant numbers. There were three elections when the youth vote "spiked" upward: 1972, when 18-20 year-olds could first vote, 1992, and 2004 - but the first two "spikes" proved aberrations, not the start of a trend, and there is no particular reason to assume 2008 will be different. Even when the youth vote spikes, they turn out in far fewer numbers than their elders. It will take more than the assertions of well-meaning activists or self-serving politicians to change that.

Sure, it is possible this could be the year that the youth vote turns out heavily and changes the results. It is also possible that monkeys could fly out of Hillary's butt at the next debate. As to which is more likely, it is impossible to say - but if I were attending debates, I'd keep a bunch of bananas in reserve just in case.