Can BarackStar in Iowa?

Obama cultivating the youth vote in Iowa, hoping for a good harvest of teens to put him over the top in the January caucuses. Under a quirk in Iowa law, 17 year olds can participate in the caucus as long as they turn 18 by election day the next November. WSJ:

After a recent foreign-policy speech, the candidate invited some of the attending teens and their friends backstage. Told that 17-year-old Anna Murray was student senate president of Iowa City's West High School, he asked her advice on running for president. Ms. Murray, smiling broadly, was speechless. The next day she rushed up to her old government teacher, who is the student-senate adviser, to recount the tale. The Obama campaign is also actively cultivating teachers, along with high-school principals, using them for entree to the youngest voters. Sometimes Obama aides try to hunt the adults down at home, begging for classroom time.

(Gee, I wonder if they would be equally as open to appeals from Republicans.) Obama's field offices hold "BarackStar" sessions to proselytize teens and encourage them to distribute campaign literature at schools. Obviously this is a natural constituency for him--naive and inexperienced.

But even teachers and principals for Obama can't organize bus trips for kids to cut class to go to the Iowa caucus--it's held at night. And the arcane rules favor the veterans. So it remains an open question whether Barack can star in Iowa. (Hillary is the darling of the very organized Dem teachers' unions, after all.)

Related posts: Obama Old Hat, A Little History Quiz