In 2008, young Obama supporters were the epitome of cool: They drank Starbucks. They wore skinny jeans and TOMS. They blogged and tweeted furiously on their MacBooks decorated with those iconic “Hope” stickers. These twentysomethings were effortlessly hip, and they were everywhere.

Supporting John McCain? That was social suicide. To be a conservative was to associate oneself with a dying political party ruled by old white men. Being a Republican was definitely not cool.

It’s no surprise, then, that Millennials turned out overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008. And in 2012, Obama, still the King of Cool, once again won big with young voters.

These last two elections were great examples of a disheartening but potentially unavoidable fact of modern presidential politics: When it comes to wooing twentysomethings, it helps to be cool.

Read the rest of this article in the National Review.