The message last night in Iowa was a clear: Please let’s change the whole mess up!

Sounding the opening bell on the 2008 elections, caucus-goers voted overwhelmingly for a first-term African-American senator on the left and an anti-BigMoney governor on the right. Key to the victories of both men was the mad increase in participation of young voters. The numbers are amazing. You know the way it sounds when someone sits down next to you somewhere and is moving to the music in their headphones and you think Yeah that sounds pretty good and then they let you have a listen and it’s more than good, it’s banging— well that sound is how the numbers look.

Youth turnout rate nearly tripled this time around, going from 4 percent in 2004 to 11 percent last night. Young voters supported both winners by the largest margins of any age group. According to a CNN poll, among 17-to-29-year-old Democrats, 57 percent supported Barack Obama; among 17-to-29-year-old Republicans, 40 percent supported Mike Huckabee. What’s more, the percentage of Democratic caucus-goers under the age of 30 (22 percent) was greater than the percentage of people under 30 who live in Iowa (21 percent). All of which reflects national trends noted since 2000. Since then and before last night, 6.2 million new voters under 30 years of age had cast ballots. And this year, 44 million Americans under 30 will be eligible to vote, more than one-fifth of all U.S. voters.

Was Obama right to target the much maligned “apathetic” youth? Oh yes he was. He got the youth vote and he got the woman vote and he got the white vote. In a 95 percent white state, Obama killed. He didn’t do it alone, of course, and it couldn’t have hurt that the man nailed this last of his caucus ads, hitting the two-minute mark exactly. Swish and the buzzer!

Addition: For anecdotal reporting on what went on inside the caucuses, ie, more about the youth takeover, read these three quick Salon dispatches.