And just when you thought people under 40 weren’t interested in political news – the kids of politicians have come to the rescue. They know that young people have tuned out, and are done with ‘tuning’ altogether.

Imagine this: a senator from Iowa sits in a classroom with college students talking to a senator in California standing with a church youth group, talking to a senator in Texas sitting with students in an internet café. Everyone can see everyone, and everyone can talk with everyone. Welcome to the Internet age and welcome to “Generation Engage,” a group founded by the sons of Brookings Institute president Strobe Talbott, and the son of Sen. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). Even John Edward's daughter is helping out. These guys know the young lifestyle, and they have the sweet hook-ups to do something about it. The combination is clearly in their favor. The Politico described those hook-ups in an article headlined “Pol’s Children Shepherd Youth.”

"With video conferencing software donated by Apple Inc. and the founders' inside-the-Beltway connections, Generation Engage is fostering high-tech links to connect young people with politicians and other national figures."

Since young people aren’t scheduling the old TV debates into their hectic schedules, these young political activists have brought the debates into the schedules of the youth by targeting the places where young people spend their time.

The events are often broadcast from Washington to community colleges, Internet cafes and other places. Then they are archived on the group's website, where they can be accessed anytime. "If you are going to community college and working nights, it's just a different lifestyle," said Chris Lewis, Generation Engage's Virginia state director. "They don't have time to plug in. So we wanted to bring (politicians) to them and their community."

Bringing it to their community also means bringing it through Google-sponsored links (those ones that pop up on the right side of the screen). When college students are curious about anything, the first place they go is Google. And now they can hear from the politicians via Google, via podcast, even while they are writing term papers at 3 in the morning. In fact they can download the videos onto their ipod so that they can show clips to their friends at lunch the next day. The future news consumers don’t want news that’s on at 6 every evening. They want it 24/7 and they want to be able to chat with their friends at the same time. And did I mention the fact that you can ichat with President Bill Clinton?

Maybe these next elections will be the year that 18-24 year olds vote. If Generation Engage can gain notoriety so much so that other parties jump into a similar trend, politics may be going somewhere.

"We want to hold a series of what we think will be the most democratic debates in U.S. history," Rockefeller said, "because the questions won't be coming from Jim Lehrer, they will be coming directly from young people in their communities around the nation, asking the candidates about the issues that are important to them."

And if this proves a successful way to get into the 18-24 year-old gap, will news jump on the bandwagon too? Next thing we know it there will be interactive conferencing with reporters and their audience. Or maybe the future of broadcast news is that you will have your itunes set to automatically download the news video podcast every morning before you head off and then watch it on your metro commute.

Two days ago I’d given up hope that my generation would ever consume news or politics. The world looked bleak. Now I’ve had a vision of the future and I think we’re going somewhere.

If you’re interested, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be available on the ipod in YOUR pocket starting April 18th. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace. Wherever YOU want to be.