April
12 Norman Lear Courts the Youth Vote

That, and other news, in Thursday's Political Panorama.

When it comes to the 2008 election, Norman Lear is covering all the bases. He is once again launching Declare Yourself, the nonpartisan voter registration drive aimed at 18-year-olds, not only on Comedy Central and Clear Channel but on MySpace and Yahoo! as well as promotional partners YouTube, Google, Friendster and Evite.

In other words, the Internet generation won't be able to miss it.

Lear founded Declare Yourself for the 2004 campaign, and his group says it registered some 1 million new voters in that year and in 2006. America Ferrara of "Ugly Betty" and Hayden Penettiere from "Heroes" will serve as spokespersons this time around.

There's plenty more out there, too. Generation Engage, founded by Adrian and Devin Talbott and Justin Rockefeller, uses Apple video conferencing software to link politicians and other national figures with youth. And You Tube has announced a new interactive forum in which users can post video questions to candidates, who will then respond with their own posting. First up: Mitt Romney.

A Super Bowl Primary: Given that so many states are scheduling primaries on Feb. 5, the AP looks at the possibility that campaigns would buy spots during the Feb. 3 Super Bowl. "That is a very ripe and timely target," says Mark McKinnon, chief media strategist for President Bush in 2000 and 2004 and now an adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. "It would reach a huge audience at a very critical time. I think campaigns will look very closely at that." Not only would campaigns face as much as $2.6 million for a 30-second spot, but the ads would have to be good. MoveOn did try to buy an ad on the Super Bowl in 2004, but CBS rejected it on the grounds that it had a policy against advocacy advertising.

Stars Line Up: The D.C Examiner does a rundown of the celebrity guests at the upcoming White House Correspondents Dinner. Among them: David Geffen, who will be a guest of Newsweek, along with Mary Tyler Moore, Jane Fonda and Dennis Hopper.

Farewell: In addition to the passing of satirical novelist Kurt Vonnegut, we should also give a note of farewell to production designer George Jenkins. He won an Oscar in 1977 for "All the President's Men," in which he quite famously recreated the Washington Post newsroom right down to hauling in trash from the real D.C. workplace to Burbank Studios. So faithful was the reproduction that New West magazine bought the set and used it as their own newsroom after the film was completed.