The kids are alright

There's been plenty of criticism out there about Obamania. You know, all the young, adoring fans who worship the ground on which Obama walks even if they don't know his policy positions and then go to Starbucks and sip soy lattes while blogging about "The Wire" on their MacBooks. And we've all seen the starry-eyed college students who fit this stereotype pretty closely. And God knows I've engaged in some of this bashing myself.

But I think it's getting a bit old, a bit mean, and a bit silly. For an example of all three, see Kathleen Parker's recent column at Townhall.com:

[Obama] is a perfect storm of the culture of narcissism, the cult of celebrity, and a secular society in which fathers (both the holy and the secular) have been increasingly marginalized from the lives of a generation of young Americans.

Please. Ever since I was a starry-eyed college student, torn between casting my primary vote for Mike Dukakis or Jesse Jackson (they seemed more inspirational at the time), I can remember reading articles about how apathetic and disappointing young voters were. Either they believed in the wrong things or they didn't believe in anything at all. Well, suddenly a lot of young liberals are finding something to believe in again. They're organizing, they're paying attention to politics, and they're voting. No, they're not all as articulate as Mario Savio was in 1964, but they're actually in the fray doing what we say we want good citizens to be doing. So let's give them a little credit.