… like he did in the last election.  Don’t get me wrong, he will still win more young votes than Mitt Romney, but it will not at unprecedented levels as we saw in 2008.  There are some that argue that Obama’s ability to get younger voters to the polls in 2008 made the difference in that race.

This year will not be like that. 

The reason is fairly simple, if you try to think like a 20-something year old.  Here’s the real question: What’s in it for them?  This self-absorbed generation voted for Obama because it made them feel cool and made them look cool among their friends who were equally as wrapped up in their coolness because they voted for, like, the coolest guy ever to run for president.  As always, there are exceptions.  But for the most part, many of them probably tuned out after 2008 and have little clue as to the colossal failure Obama has been.  This doesn’t matter as much to these voters.  All that matters is that this time around, there friends don’t care much either.  The enthusiasm isn’t there.  Voting for Obama in 2012 isn’t going to do much to boost their popularity, so why even put forth the effort of voting?

Exaggerations, yes ... but the concept is this: Obama has had to TRY this time around to be cool, and nothing turns off the youth vote than someone who is trying too hard to fit in.

Once the brains of these younger voters fully develops (something which has been scientifically proven to happen in your mid-twenties), then perhaps they will gain the rational thinking skills to make a logical decision on the issue.  For example, the question “What’s in it for me” will not answered by the short-sighted “I won’t be cool” but perhaps the forward-thinking, “I don’t want to be paying for Obama’s spending spree my entire life.”