Get Smart

Back to the Wall Street Journal today, where we learn that racecar-driver-turned-truck-rental-and-car-dealer-mogul Roger Penske has signed on to bring the long awaited two-seat Smart car to America.

If you've been to Europe in the last five years, chances are you've seen one of these parked in an impossibly tight space - maybe backed in perpendicular to a line of regular-sized cars parked parallel to the curb. 

Conventional wisdom has long held that small cars simply won't sell in America. But while full-sized SUV sales fell off a cliff over the last two years, the two most successful brand launches in the industry have been BMW's Mini and and Toyota's Scion...both of which are flying off the lots without any of the expensive rebates that have drained the coffers in Detroit.

What's interesting is the company's marketing scheme, which is aimed at young buyers and other trendsetters, and relies almost entirely on the web.

"They like to be communicated with by email, period," Penske says. 

So far, 10,000 people have turned out to drive the car during the company's 50-city tour, and a remarkable 20,000 have plopped down a very affordable $99 deposit to reserve a car that has yet to actually hit U.S. streets.

Not coincidently, the company is a sponsor f Al Gore's Live Earth concert series coming up next month. 

All of which says something about the youth demo in this country. For more on that we turn to the front page of today's New York Times, and the headline: "Young Americans Are Leaning Left, New Poll Finds."

From a strictly political standpoint, that indeed is what the poll says. Taken from a cultural perspective, however, and it looks more like a level-headed generation that is worried about its future, looking for solutions, and not that moved by the hotbutton polemics served up by the status quo. 

Environment, which did not make the reporters' cut in the story, pops out in the very first question of the poll itself, where respondents aged 17 to 29 say it is the number two issue facing their generation today, ahead of jobs, healthcare and the economy -- even gas prices.

Ninety percent said it is important to have government policies that reduce consumption of oil and gas, and 59 percent say candidates for president aren't making the issue enough of a priority.  

A full 89 percent say global warming is a serious problem, with more than half saying it should be "one of the highest priorities for government leaders."

Seventy four percent of this group is registered to vote.

Detroit and Washington: Meet your new bosses.