Election Lesson #2: Carville was Right

Numerous commenters (e.g. Matt Yglesias) have remarked on the lack of a significant increase in youth turnout. While turnout of the under-30 crowd increased somewhat, it was no different from the increase in turnout more generally. We won’t know for sure for a little while, but at this point is seems that the substantial efforts of ACT, MoveOn, Rock the Vote, etc. to bring new voters to the polls had little effect. Note that this fizzle is similar to the one illustrated by Howard Dean’s inability to bring out new primary voters during the Democratic primary.

So I’m now a firm convert to the unfortunate wisdom contained in these words by democratic strategist James Carville: “You know what they call a candidate who’s counting on a lot of new voters? A loser.”

Kash