12,000 attend Obama Earth Day rally

Barack Obama attracted his largest crowd to date in Iowa, estimated at 12,000, for Earth Day celebrations where he called on citizens to make the environment a top issue.

Obama mentioned his own initiative to combat global warming, modeled on that of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, that would reduce emissions equivalent of taking 32 million cars off the road.

On Friday, Barack kicked off his New England campaign with an event at Boston University. The focus on university rallies is part of an overall strategy to recognize and utilize Barack's impressive appeal to young people.

A new subsection on the new site students.barackobama.com has been released for this purpose.

Getting students and other young people out to vote can be a problem.

For example, many students change residence during different parts of the year. For this reason, its important to get cellphone rather than land-line numbers, as well as email addresses to remind young supporters to vote. This will be especially important for newly-registered voters.

Technologies like text messaging and rallies and parties for early voting or on election day can also be used to mobilize young voters.