There's still plenty of suspense left in this year's presidential campaign but one thing is clear: The youth vote is coming in.

And not a moment too soon. Because — take it from a baby boomer — older voters have kind of screwed things up.

We've allowed one of the most remarkably incompetent administrations in American history to get our thinly stretched military forces bogged down in not one but two major conflicts abroad.

Despite years of warnings, we've failed to reform Social Security and Medicare. That needs to be done so younger workers aren't crushed by new taxes as more and more baby boomers retire and start to collect government benefits.

We've run up a huge national debt, in part by asking the government to buy a ton of stuff we didn't really need.

The federal debt works out to a shade over $30,000 for every person in the country, according to Harry Zeeve, national field director for the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group.

"Have you written your check yet?" he asks wryly.

For young people, Zeeve notes, this piece of the federal debt comes on top of other debt for things like rising college tuition—another big problem, incidentally, that Washington has ignored.

No, that's not quite right. In recent years the federal government, which is heavily involved in higher education, has done things that actually made the tuition crisis worse.

Other critical problems like global warming and a chaotic healthcare system have been neglected.

Oh, and one more thing: Our nation's name is mud across much of the globe.

Youthful idealism is a wonderful thing, and it has powered significant jumps in U.S. voter turnout so far this year.

The youth vote tripled and even quadrupled in some states on Super Tuesday. In Missouri, Sen. Hillary Clinton had been widely expected to win. But young voters provided Sen. Barack Obama with his margin of victory. Obama's inspirational words about unity and new approaches to our nation's challenges have struck a chord on college campuses around the country.

That's fine as long as students and other young voters understand that sometimes politics basically amounts to a shoving match over who gets what, and who pays for it.

And older Americans, particularly retirees, excel at this game.

They call their representatives in Washington. They write letters to the editor, pounding away at themes like why they deserve even more federal assistance with their medical bills than they already get.

They send in their dues to the AARP, a politically powerful organization that champions their demands on Capitol Hill and at the White House. And, most important, older people show up at the polls.

Many of them think of themselves as idealistic, too. They talk about looking out for the next generation, taking care of our country's future, and so on.

All that rhetoric is echoed by elected officials.

But time and again, year after year, those officials vote to hand out more and more benefits to older Americans. Younger workers are often just asked to help pick up the tab. Or the tab is simply left for future generations to pay.

So to my 20-year-old daughter and other young Americans: Congratulations as you move to take a more active role in the political process.

The country needs your idealism. It needs your enthusiasm.

And sometimes the rest of the country could use some help in really keeping focused on the future — your future.

Stephen Winn is deputy editorial page editor of the Kansas City Star.