Found in a TNR Comment Thread.

This sentiment, re: the "Yes, We Can" video, is, I think, quite lovely and correct.

My daughter is 28, about the age of many of the people in this video. I don't know for whom she's planning to vote. We haven't discussed it; it's her business.

I do know, however, that at age 57 I wish I had done a better job caring for our country and our planet, for her sake and those of her peers. I have been wrong more often than I have been right, it seems. I have been lazy and selfish when I should have been industrious and giving. I think it's obvious to anyone making a rational assessment that humanity in general and enough folks like me in particular have failed in a thousand little ways that have led inexorably to failure in several big, big ways. Babies still starve to death. Gorgeous creatures that once roamed free are now pushed to extinction. Men still take up arms against one another, and now, more often than not, women do, too.

I don't know for sure if Barack Obama is the candidate to lead us out of this mess; I don't know for sure if he can even lead us to a solution to any of our tempests du jour like health care or immigration. But I do know that I would find it completely understandable if the young people asked to participate in the video had simply shrugged their shoulders and said, "Fuck it. I'm looking out for Number One, and that's it."

That they did not, that they chose instead to try to motivate others to feel a little mist of hope in a desert of cynicism, brought tears to my eyes as I watched them, whoever they are.