Call it “cut and run.”

The Sen. John McCain campaign is giving up on the youth vote.

And the minority vote.

And good riddance.

In a story Thursday — “In a More Diverse America, a Mostly White Convention” — The Washington Post reported McCain campaign manager Rick Davis’ description of a strategy that “essentially cedes the black vote.”

Significantly, Davis suggested McCain would cede the youth vote, too.

“We can run our campaign the way we want to run it and not be in direct conflict with a lot of voter groups [Obama] is trying to get,” he told the Post, singling out “the minority community or the youth,” as constituencies that are apparently excluded from the phrase “president of all the people.”

He’s effeminate! He’s dreamy! And he’s only about 15! Is somebody finally going to call the McCain campaign and tell those people that Barack Obama isn’t the fourth member of the Jonas Brothers?

I tried my best, but they wouldn’t listen to me. Something about being young and inexperienced.

“We believe that Barack Obama is a global celebrity who has a lot of fans out there,” McCain campaign spokesperson Joe Pounder told me.

And maybe he’s right. This is clearly a quality no leader of the free world should ever aspire to. Real Americans want people to hate us! We were going to nominate Oscar the Grouch, but his publicist said he was unavailable. And besides, he has too many young fans.

I’m not going to tell you about how to get along with your roommate or pick classes or decide which set of plastic drawers to get at Wal Mart. I’m not going to tell you anything any other college freshman in the country would understand.

Over the past three years, as a reporter, writer and editor for The Sun, I’ve gotten to know Ithaca and Cornell in a way few do. Amid the bustle and chaos of university life, it was my job and privilege, every so often, to step back and observe.