Within 20 minutes of arriving at the Barack Obama campaign organizational meeting on July 26, it became evident the presidential race was over.

The meeting’s purpose was to mobilize volunteers in order to achieve a Florida victory this November. It took place in the Grand Palm Room of the Boca campus Student Union. The staff and the volunteers were incredibly motivated and excited for Obama’s candidacy. Around 300 volunteers showed up when only 100 were expected, making the meeting the largest in the state.

The campaign has attracted many first-time volunteers and contributors as well.

This was 21-year-old Boca resident Michael Berkowitz’s first campaign. He, like most people at the event, are enamored by Barack Obama because he feels Obama is a new kind of politician, one that will change the political landscape of Washington.

Lifelong Democrats, who have never given money or volunteered, have been driven to act, too. At the meeting, people both young and old were jumping at the chance to become precinct captains or go door to door in hopes that their contributions would make an impact.

The campaign meeting was magnificently well organized. Volunteers who signed up at the door were sent follow-up e-mails less than two days after the event. The campaign is not letting any potential volunteer – or voter, for that matter – slip by.

Meanwhile, John McCain is lethargic about winning the presidency. If the McCain campaign does not do something quick to mobilize the grassroots, he will lose.

The supporters of Obama really believe in their candidate, which is more than I can say for the McCain supporters who are, at best, absent from FAU grounds. Throughout the Breezeway, multiple Obama volunteers have stopped me and asked if I’m registered to vote, and if there are any issues that are important to me.

I have not been stopped by or even seen one McCain volunteer on campus. Does McCain not want my vote? He seems to be treating the youth vote as expendable and it might just cost him the presidency.