Throw a couple more older people in this and you've got a damn near perfect campaign video

This is really, really good. And I know that the people most energized by Barack Obama's candidacy are the young. But historically, young voters, largely because they're more mobile and sometimes less likely to register, don't always show up at the polls at crunch time. Hopefully this year will be different, assuming Barack Obama can pull this out and become the Democratic nominee.

But it isn't just young people who feel a responsibility to the future. I realize that everyone under 35 wishes that all the baby boomers would just put guns to our heads and die already -- preferably all at once because it would make great television. But you know what, guys? You need us to do this. And this isn't about baby-boomer self-centeredness, you even need our parents to help you do this. You need older Americans because there are still people out there who may not identify themselves as racist but won't vote for a black man because they're afraid of "what the blacks might do if one of theirs gains power." You need us because 51% or 52% or even 55% of the vote isn't going to be enough to stop them from shorting the number of voting machines sent to minority districts. You need us because the media are going to start up the Bash the Democratic Candidate chorus that's going to start up again as soon as we have a nominee running against Saint John McCain, the philanderer, Keating Five veteran, and kisser-up to a man who won by smearing his adopted child. It isn't going to stop an already right-wing Supreme Court from handing another close election to a Republican. It isn't going to stop Republican Secretaries of State from making bogus claims of terrorist threats to shut down transparency in the handling of the votes.

We've been down this road many, many times. And while a lot of us have become cynical about the process, we know that we have no choice but to continue to play the game. Jack Shepherd on Lost is often a sanctimonious pain in the ass, but he's right -- we live together or die alone.

In this video, I see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Herbie Hancock -- and that's about the extent of representation from older Americans that I see. And as I said, this isn't about baby boomers. How cool would a video like this be if it included people like Studs Terkel and Howard Zinn? I know you want to think that the WWII generation has all died off, that those born between 1955 and 1964 (of which Obama is one, by the way) all monolithic, that we all sold out and became conservative Republicans and voted for George W. Bush. Or you think that the Triangulation of Hillary is representative of an entire generation in our lust for power, forgetting that Hillary was a conservative Young Republican long before she married Bill.

When I worked on Howard Dean's campaign in 2004, and I went to Meetup meetings to hand-write personal letters to Iowa voters, the average of people who were there was probably around 50 -- and about half were older than I was. We're out here. You need us to do this. And if you shut us out, even symbolically, such as in videos like this one, you're not going to have the kind of decisive numbers to keep the Republicans from stealing another one -- and going to find yourself with President John McCain in November.

Let us help do this. Together we can stop the madness.

Yes. We. Can.