Dear Senators McCain and Obama:

I've just read a press release and visited the site of a new political social networking venture known as MeriTalk. On opening day, all the palavering is about "Generation Y's Bill of Rights." (PDF)

Sen. McCain, these Gen Xers are 30 and under and have found you lacking since you declared yourself a computer illiterate, reducing the entire campaign to the fact that you are neither a PC nor a Mac guy. You, they claim, "don't get it." There's still hope for you, though, if you mention "Web 2.0 tools" as a priority for your administration.

For an old boomer, they like you a lot, Sen. Obama ... at least for right now. According to MeriTalk, some 42 million plan to vote this fall and 71 percent of them believe a "Democratic candidate is best suited to lead the next administration." However, 75 percent of them said they were willing to cross party lines if they don't get their way.

What do they want, you might ask? A little ray of sunshine in their angsty, 20-something, Web 2.0 lives, it appears. More than 80 percent of them claim they do not feel a "personal connection to the U.S. government." Forget e-gov, they want my-gov, my way, all the time.

"Give the American people hope for a brighter future and then deliver," MeriTalk quotes a survey respondent as saying. As a side note, 46 percent of Gen Yers are "confident the United States will be in better shape four years from now." Then again, who isn't?

Senators, it is very important you get this next point: Yers are "significantly more likely to obtain their news through word of mouth over the next four years." That would include YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Jon Stewart. More than half of Yers already depend on those as their news sources.

What about traditional news sources? That's just something their foggy boomer parents depend on. Brian Williams, corporate news shill; Stephen Colbert, beacon of insight.

In the Yer world, this is called seeking "their own counsel" and the "people's right to measure credibility as they choose." Like most voters don't already do that between Fox and CNN, but that's another issue.

Now, this is the most critical point in dealing with Yers, particularly for you, Sen. McCain: 85 percent of Yers want the next president to reach out to the public at least once a month. MeriTalk claims 46 percent of the Gen Y gang believe the next president "should stay in touch with the nation through online sources," and they don't mean using AT&T and Verizon to wiretap their e-mail.

This is where those Web 2.0 tools come into play. "We want an ongoing dialogue -- and for the first time in history, we have the tools," states the MeriTalk survey. Perhaps the new president could simply IM the Yers when something is going on (POTUS: Just bombed Iran, thought you'd want to know).

"Currently, we only hear negative things in the news, but not what the government is doing in terms of passing legislation, etc.," complained one Yer in the survey. Since they don't really bother with legitimate news sources, this is easy enough to believe.

Well, anyway, senators, we just thought you'd want to know.

Roy Mark
Senior Writer, eWEEK