Obama urges Iowa students to flood caucuses

But most will be on break and group's turnout is usually low

The slender woman with the ash blond curls and the brown knit beret stood at the back of the gym nodding in agreement with everything Barack Obama said.

It was mid-morning in Mount Vernon, Iowa, at Cornell College, a small liberal arts college named for the distant cousin of the man who founded the Ivy League institution in Ithaca, N.Y.

The young woman, Jessica McMaster, a senior here, is a self-described "Obama fanatic." She is heeding every word Obama says in his speech about the need for students to perform public service. She plans to join the Peace Corps on graduation.

For two days this week Democratic presidential wannabe Obama has quickly bused through eastern Iowa, visiting as many colleges as he can: Grinnell, the University of Iowa, Cornell, the University of Northern Iowa and Wartburg College.

He wants to catch students before they head off for winter break; he implores them to caucus for him -- a nettlesome issue since many of them, like McMaster, will be out of town. Obama's campaign has gotten into a little hot water for offering to bus Iowa students -- who go to school here but may live out of state -- to the Iowa caucuses on Jan 3.

McMaster is from Littleton, Colo., but plans to do exactly as Obama asks: come back to Mount Vernon on New Year's, stay with some friends and caucus for the Illinois senator. He has her hooked -- she's already registered as an Iowa voter.

Student turnout, however, in past caucuses has been abysmal. According to the Iowa Democratic Party, only about 4 percent of caucus attendees were between 18 and 24 in 2004. Most are over 50.

But Obama could be different. His overtures to the young already helped him win the endorsement of the Iowa State Daily this week, which noted "we appreciate Obama's commitment to the generation who will inherit the country."

And in a dig at Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and President Bush, the university newspaper argued that two families have dominated the White House for 20 years and "an election for Hillary would make that 24 at a minimum -- longer than most college students have been alive."

Obama's advisers say they aren't counting on the youth vote by any means, but Obama told Cornell students "this is one of the elections where I hope we prove the cynics wrong."

He joked: "If you're going away for the holidays, come back on Jan. 3 at 6:30."

Later, he told the crowd at the University of Northern Iowa that "I'm only going to win if all of you caucus," adding humorously: "Don't make me look bad, I don't want for everyone on Jan. 3 to say he was wasting all that time with young people and, look, they didn't show up."

At Wartburg College in Waverly, he told the crowd: "We want every Iowa student to caucus here in Iowa, and you have no excuses. . . . The holidays will be over, and I don't think Wartburg is playing in a bowl game."

By caucusing "you will have more to do with deciding the next leader of the free world than anyone else on the planet."

Obama responds with delight to college kids, and he frequently makes stops at colleges during his travels through Iowa.

He feeds off the youthful fervor, much the same way he feeds off audiences of African Americans in South Carolina. Both crowds shout things back at him; they eschew the polite reserve of older Iowans. And Obama responds with a dynamism not always seen in his discourse with voters.

He is often compared to Robert Kennedy, as he was again at Cornell when introduced by Harris Woford, one of the founders of the Peace Corps.

But Kennedy, while a hero for students protesting the Vietnam War, was shy and often awkward. Obama, the former law school lecturer, is a fluid speaker; he connects with students.

"When I first heard him speak, I responded to him in an intuitive way," says Cornell student McMaster.

"But then I started hearing about his plans for health care, No Child Left Behind.

"He is so natural and so unaffected, and when I heard him speak in Cedar Rapids he talked about how he needed just $5 from each person or a $1 [in donations], and he talked about the ability of an individual to make a difference.

"That's when I realized I could get involved. And I thought to myself, 'He wants me to caucus for him! Wow! I don't know much about the world. I'm only 21, but he wants me to caucus for him.' "

And then she pulled her beret down over her curls and stepped through the doors of the gym into a brisk Iowa day.