I must admit that until reading the following article, I had not had much interest in learning about Facebook. From this article at Politico and the bit of research I did, it appears to be the place to be on the web, primarily for college students.

This particular age group has been chastised in the past for the fact that they do not vote, not only in local elections but at the national level, (I am certain there are those who have voted in every election since they became of age) but it seems at least at Facebook, there is a candidate who may just stir up enough emotion in them to send more young people to the polls.

As the new school year gets fully under way and presidential hopefuls work the young voter circuit via social networking websites, one online group — Facebook’s “Stop Hillary Clinton (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)” — is seriously outpacing its pro-candidate rivals in attracting new members.

With more than 418,000 members, Stop Hillary Clinton has now surpassed “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)” as the largest group for or against a presidential candidate on Facebook. (The pro-Obama group has 355,000 members.)

The anti-Clinton group is growing at 10 percent per month, said Micah Sifry, co-director of Tech President, a blog group that tracks and studies how political candidates use the Web.

And, while there are dozens of pro-Clinton groups on Facebook, they tend to be much smaller. The two largest — “Hillary Clinton for President — One Million Strong” and “Hillary ’08” — have a combined membership of just fewer than 10,000. When asked if there were any pro-Clinton groups on Facebook comparable in size to Stop Hillary Clinton, Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks said, “I haven’t seen any.”

Political analysts aren’t surprised. Clinton has had a polarizing effect on voters since her days as first lady. “Hillary Clinton is one of the most divisive political figures of our time,” veteran GOP consultant Rick Wilson said. “People feel empowered by the Facebook effect. This group is growing organically. It’s not some sort of Republican plan by Karl Rove in the background.”

Are these young people joining just because it is “the thing to do” or are they seriously motivated to see Mrs. Clinton defeated? If the following statements by just a few are any indication, it seems they have at least given the issue some thought before answering questions about the Senator when being interviewed.

Politico contacted several members through the Facebook website to find out why they joined the anti-Clinton group, and their political views are not easily categorized.

While leaning Republican, Texas A&M sophomore Cody Karasek describes himself as a moderate who “wouldn’t mind seeing another Democratic president.” Yet, he said he joined Stop Hillary Clinton because “almost any other person in the running would do a better job running the country.”

Pennsylvania State University alum Megan Preuss chooses candidates based on a variety of issues. She’s a strong supporter of gay marriage, for example. But despite Clinton’s embrace of gay rights — although not gay marriage specifically — Preuss won’t vote for Clinton because it “would be putting [Bill Clinton] back in the White House.”

Sierra Garcia, a freshman at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, signed up because she believes Clinton “is too much of a feminist Democrat.”

If I were a candiate running for office in 2008 I think I just might be keeping a close eye on this site. The web is providing outlets which may just measure the temperature across this nation better than any poll or major publication.

“There are those that say that our group isn’t an effective political tool,” DeMaura said. “But I’ve yet to see a group grow so organically and quickly. If there’s a platform that is as effective in getting people involved who wouldn’t normally be, I’d like to see it.”

It would be wonderful if through the use of the internet we could encourage additional young people to participate in the electoral process. After all, they are the future of our country.