Editor's note: Please vote

Click photo to enlarge

• «
• 1
• »

It's tempting to view each successive presidential election as epochal, when, in reality, most probably don't transcend their particular place in history.

The 2008 race, however, may indeed be remembered as that type of singular, era-defining event -- regardless of how things turn out Tuesday.

Consider what we've witnessed over the past 18 months:

On the Democratic side, we saw the rise of not only the first African American nominee in Sen. Barack Obama, but also a seemingly endless primary battle involving an almost equally strong female candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Republicans, in a once improbable move, nominated Sen. John McCain, who revived an all-but-dead campaign and won his side's primary battle, then tapped the GOP's first-ever female vice-presidential candidate in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Now, with the country plunged into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the American people are poised to make history by electing this nation's first black president -- if the polls are to believed.

And if they're wrong, and McCain wins, it'll be an upset of truly historic proportions.

So either way, Tuesday marks the end of a once-in-a-lifetime election season, one that has -- thanks largely to Obama's efforts -- electrified the nation's young voters.

The University of Colorado campus has not seen this level of political commotion since Bill Clinton's first run for the White House in 1992. Students are genuinely excited by Obama -- in a way they weren't by Al Gore or John Kerry -- and it's visible everywhere, from the thousands of people who filled Farrand Field to see Michelle Obama speak last month to the avalanche of get-out-the-vote messages peppering students' Facebook pages.

But as impressive as this fall's campus activism has been, it'll all be for naught if the students who haven't already voted don't turn out to the polls Tuesday.

Historically, younger voters don't vote in the same numbers as their older counterparts, and there already are some distressing signs this year. In Florida, for example, news reports indicate a disproportionately low number of younger voters cast their ballots during early voting.

So don't let that be the lesson of'08, that Obama pumped up the youth of America, but they then failed him at the polls.

Don't be deterred by long lines. For many of you, this is your first chance to fulfil your civic duty as an American. So if you haven't already, please vote Tuesday -- no matter who you support.

This newspaper heartily endorsed Barack Obama -- and CU's students seem to favor him overwhelmingly -- but a vote for John McCain is better than apathy.

Matt Sebastian is the editor of the Colorado Daily.