When Barack Obama was catapulted into the Oval Office in 2008, it was with the help of millennials who turned out in record numbers and voted for him two-to-one over the GOP’s John McCain.
Now his signature issue — ObamaCare — is in deep trouble. Once again, he is looking to America’s young to come through for him. Once again too, he’s relying on a campaign of speeches and public appearances to get them to do so.
But in sharp contrast to 2008, he’s making his new appeal to a much more jaded demographic. According to a Harvard University poll released this week, more than half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 disapprove of ObamaCare. Fewer than a third say they will sign up.
If that holds up, the program will fail. That’s because ObamaCare depends on getting enough healthy young people to buy insurance so they can underwrite the higher health-care costs for older, sicker Americans.
The White House understands this, which no doubt explains the latest PR blitz. It started with a “youth summit” at the White House on Wednesday, where the president admitted “I’m here, because I need your help.” It continued Thursday night with a televised appearance before college students at American University, where he repeated his sales pitch.
The challenge for the president is that America’s young are not staying away from ObamaCare because of bad information. They are staying away because they have figured out it’s a bad deal for them. And we doubt even a string of Obama speeches or a new Twitter hashtag called #getcovered will be enough to persuade them otherwise.