Why are YRs (Young Republicans) wired about 72-year-old McCain?

In an effort to be perfectly fair and balanced, I wanted to recycle the first couple of paragraphs from my column about Barack Obama's historic acceptance of his party's nomination for president, and give John McCain supporters the same chance to gush about their ticket.

To find the Obama sources, I simply logged onto the barackobama.com site, thumbed through the list of suburban parties, read the descriptions written by the hosts, threw out those sponsored by established politicians, picked a few (including a gathering of high school kids) that sounded interesting and then called or e-mailed the hosts listed. It was almost like having a legman to do all my grunt work.

But when I tried to do the same for the McCain speech parties, johnmccain.com gave me only a handful of names and suburbs featuring parties. Instead of phone numbers, addresses and e-mails, the McCain site supplied a link asking me to fill out a form to request an invitation, which I requested, but never heard back.

"I see what you are saying," says Michael Bowler, who was co-chair of the Illinois State Young Republicans for the last three years. "I wish there was a little more going on."

In response, Bowler put together a McCain-watching party at the last minute and drew more than two dozen Young Republicans to a Naperville nightspot on a rainy night to see McCain accept the nomination last week.

At 38, Bowler is closer to getting his AARP card than he is to the college crowd. But the Aurora commercial insurance broker sent a text message in response to my interview request, and says the Young Republicans (officially 18-40) are pumped up about the 72-year-old McCain.

"It's kind of declined a bit, but it's coming back," Bowler says of the youth movement in the GOP.

When Sarah Palin emerged on the scene as McCain's vice-presidential candidate, "I got three e-mails in one day saying, 'When's your next meeting? I want to be a member,' " says Amy Sejnost Kovacevic, 33, president of DuPage Young Republicans. "More people want to get involved. I didn't know too much about Sarah, but I was glued to the tube that day. Afterward, I said, 'I love her.' "

But do young people really relate to a president who will be 76 years old by the end of his first term?

"I don't really think about his age," Bowler says. "I don't look at him as 72. I look at him as a gentleman who's been around, has experience. I look up to him. He's more of a grandfatherly figure, and I looked up to my grandparents."

Old Brett Favre came out of retirement and threw two touchdown passes to lead the Jets to victory, so McCain could do the same for the nation, Bowler figures.

Suggest that 1,000 McCain voters are dying every day, or that a Young Republican is as rare as a black teenager who's really into country music, and Bowler and Sejnost Kovacevic acknowledge that Obama is perceived as the candidate more in touch with hip, young folks. But that's not a universal truth, and it can change before November, they say.

With McCain having been in town Monday night for a fundraiser geared to high-rollers, Bowler says younger Republicans are hoping "we'll have our fun on Nov. 4."

In the meantime, "I think we're going to do some debate-watching parties," Bowler says.

"Most of us are gearing up for the debates. That's what's going to fire us up," predicts Sejnost Kovacevic, a production analyst who lives in Downers Grove.

"Let's do something," Bowler urges his fellow Young Republicans, "instead of sitting on our couches - like old people."