I’m a hot commodity in these presidential elections. And if you’re under 30, you are too. It doesn’t matter that you’ve never picked up a newspaper and I’m a journalism student. We’re practically the same person.

That is, according to the media these days. I’m in my late twenties so I’m part of that amorphous “youth vote.” You know, it’s the one that encompasses everyone from Peace Corp volunteers to young corporate lawyers. Suddenly, I speak for all of them.

The truth is there really isn’t a simple way to define this age bracket. I have peers who write for three different political blogs and those who blink in confusion when NAFTA is mentioned. My friend doesn’t talk to her older brother about politics without verbal warfare, even though they fall into the same “youth vote” category.

I’m supposed to be speaking to you about the young person’s perspective on the presidential election, as if I embody all the concerns and opinions of my generation. Now that many Americans have become political junkies—come on, admit it, you YouTube the political ads too—we would be wise to take the statistically comfortable, ideologically impossible groupings with a grain of salt. These include categorizations like Latino block and African-American voice.

This doesn’t mean I’m not worth listening to, but I’m one young voice, not all of them. Otherwise, I’d be a sleep-deprived college graduate who also dropped out of high school and traveled the world teaching sustainable farming. I’d have earned my masters in Asian American literature just before I got my job as a tech analyst in Silicon Valley and went to Iraq.

Candidates would do well to focus on the nuances of this voting group. And the media would too. I say, on behalf of us all.

And not just the “our country is in a mess” rhetoric. We were analyzing candidates as this 80-year-old Southern woman articulately explained NAFTA to me. She even knew the nuances between the Clinton and Obama healthcare packages.

I’m supposed to be the politically informed one. I’m the “youth vote” that is spearheading Barack Obama’s primary victories. I’m that amorphous group of students and coffee-shop servers, Peace Core volunteers and elementary school teachers, corporate business executives and unemployed couch surfers. I’m part of this semi-labeled faction under 30 that has become the media’s focus in the upcoming presidential elections. I’m the group showing sudden interest in political change. Kind of like, well, my grandma.

Yes, a younger generation is becoming increasingly mobilized. My colleague’s boyfriend halted work on his PhD dissertation to drive up and down California’s coast in a “Get out the Vote” Obama campaign. A recent poll commissioned by Rock the Vote surveyed people 18-29 throughout the country and found nine in 10 saying they would likely vote in November.

But so is everyone in my grandmother’s choir, and few of them have heard of Obama Girl, let alone You Tube. Young people aren’t the only ones creating this rise in voter turnout, even if the attention is constantly on them.

Ohio’s’ heavy turnout was not just youth demanding change. The under 30 group was outnumbered two-to-one by those over age 65, according to the Associated Press. Just a month ago, New Hampshire saw its highest Democratic turnout ever, but only 18 percent of the 18-29 “youth” bracket voted, the smallest percentage for any voter age group.

I’d like to see my generation thoughtfully engaged in political discourse. But it’s not just the “youth” who will decide this election. It’s an entire nation that is swept up in this revision of America. It’s motivating, but just as much for me as for my grandma. And now we have something to talk about.

>> a slightly condensed version of this was published in the Insight section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Asian Indians, as the census refers to this ethnic group, are steadily increasing, not only in number but in prestige, financial power and political involvement. Take for example one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest fundraisers, Sant Chatwal, a New York-based hotelier and owner of the Bombay Palace restaurants, who agreed to help raise more than $5 million dollars for her campaign. The Indian American businessman did this partly by galvanizing his wealthy Indian friends abroad, including steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, one of the richest men in the UK.

Indian Americans have increased in almost every state and make up more than 1.6 million people, according to the most recent census figures. A report, “We the People: Asian Indians in the United States ,” says Indian Americans are the best-educated and highest-earning among all major ethnic groups in the U.S., including native-born Americans. They are also more likely to be white collar professionals. This means, in laymen’s terms, that they are more likely to vote. The Indian American Center for Political Awareness says Indian Americans follow the oscillations of the general population. And if the turnout for this election really does indicate rekindling political interest, there will be no shortage of voters for the next one.

All of this is going to have even more impact in places like California, said the Public Policy Institute of California’s Hans Johnson in a recent presentation on California’s demography and policy. The state currently has the largest number of Indians residing in it, many of whom have flocked to tech jobs in Silicon Valley.

So, eager politicians take note. There’s a new group to seduce.

The latest Spanish-language ad flooding the Texas airwaves features a sombrero-clad mariachi band walking down the street and reciting, “Viva Obama!” in baritone.

The singer coos about Obama’s dedication to working-class Latinos and keeping families united. He mentions support from the Latino-dominated cities of San Antonio and Corpus Christi as they show up in bright letters on screen. Obama is even pictured wearing a cowboy hat.

So who is behind this ballad of love?

It’s not Obama and it’s not Latinos from Texas. It’s the brainchild of Miguel Orozco, and his Nueva Vista Media company in southern California. Orozco is leading a Latino outreach campaign called Amigos de Obama.

Orozco is not new to the propaganda of political campaigns. He began his career as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Intern and worked on the Hill as a U.S. Senate staffer. Now he’s using his digital media company, which has offices in Chicago and Los Angeles, to coral Latinos across the country into the Obama camp. That, after all, is his job. The company uses broadcast and online media to communicate messages to Latinos.

It’s almost too convenient. But Orozco says he’s the one behind it all and explains his motivation for the publicity campaign on the Amigos de Obama Web site. He says he created the campaign “to fill a void in media outreach to Latinos” and that he’s “helping my neighbor, my brother.”

The effects of the ads remain to be seen. But as Hillary Clinton’s campaign nears eruption, this bellowing sextet can’t be a soothing sound.

Former President George H.W. Bush endorsed John McCain’s presidential campaign this Monday, a move McCain hinted at on Friday. But the President’s Day aspect had a nice touch to it, so Bush used the holiday to speak about McCain’s “conservative values,” reemphasize his war history, and formally back him for president. The nomination is intended to attract more conservative Republican support for a man who is also backed by independents like Joe Lieberman.

So why not the son? President Bush was in Africa during the announcement but he told “Fox News Sunday” last weekend that he will advocate for McCain’s conservative credentials after the official nomination.

Until then, McCain’s advisors are ensuring Bush stays far away from the candidate. They won’t be seen together during much of the campaign, The New York Times reported on Monday. The current president could push away the independents and moderate Democrats that McCain needs. The approval rating among that group is virtually nonexistent. But someone needs to replace President Bush in grappling for conservative votes. Enter the father.

The question is, does the former president have enough sway to ignite a group whose approval of his son is declining?

Then I moved from the East Coast to California and everything changed. I found myself voting on propositions most people have never heard of but become experts on once inside the voting booth. But that has turned out to be the simplest part of the process.

Today, near Berkeley’s campus for the much-hyped Super Tuesday, we had to actually be “taught” how to vote.

No fill in the bubbles. No check boxes. Instead, my neighbor turned voting instructor said I needed to “heavily but not too heavily” sketch a line that connected an arrow near the candidate of my choice. Use a black pen. Apply pressure but don’t underline. It felt like an art project.

She had to explain twice. I couldn’t hear her the first time because another assistant was screaming at the man in front of me. “You’re the one that needs the Libertarian ballot, right? Do we have a Libertarian ballot?”

A half hour later I left feeling vanquished. I’d contributed to something historic, had a say in my governmental leadership. And yes, I’d conquered the automated ballot box, even if it beeped at me more than the Libertarian when I entered my completed form.
Maybe my arrows were too dark.