Schlockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore on Friday's "Real Time" got a much-needed education about how absurd it is to claim "white America does not like having a black president."
CNN's Jessica Yellin also taught Moore a thing or two about voter turnout during midterm elections (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MICHAEL MOORE: The other part of this though is that white America does not like having a black president. That's just the sad truth.
BILL MAHER, HOST: That is the truth.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN: His approval rating was 76 percent after his inauguration?
MOORE: No…
YELLIN: The day after the inauguration.
I'm not sure about the day after, but CNN's own polling gave Obama a 78 percent favorability rating right before the inauguration. Beyond this, 43 percent of white people voted for the junior senator from Illinois in 2008.
As such, claiming "white America does not like having a black president" is just preposterous.
But that wasn't the only thing Yellin schooled Moore about on Friday evening:
MOORE: The statistics don’t lie. I’m not talking about polls. I’m talking about that the young people in ’08 was the only, did you know this, it's the only demographic, white demographic that Obama won, 18 to 29-year-olds.
MAHER: Right.
MOORE: Every other demographic, over 29, Obama lost the white vote. Every single one. That's how huge the young people's vote was because that's what put him over. And then he completely ignored them and forgot about them and then started texting them like a month before the election, please come out and…
YELLIN: The young vote, it is true that the youth vote was depressed this time compared to the election, but it was the same rate as every midterm election since polling began. So the rate at which young people voted was sort of static. It's sort of consistent with what we’ve seen before. Obama didn’t get them out, but it wasn’t worse than in past midterms.
Indeed. Even the ultra-liberal website Fire Dog Lake came to the same conclusion:
Youth turnout was comparable to recent midterm years and remarkably stable. Youth didn’t vote more or less than they did, roughly speaking, than in other midterms.
Apparently, the supposedly brilliant Mr. Moore doesn't understand that turnout in presidential elections is always higher than midterms, and that young people in particular are always less energized for these events.
On the other hand, it sure was surprising seeing a liberal CNNer correct the high and mighty Moore not once but twice.
Brava, Jessica. Brava.
*****Update: NBer metaphorsbwithu apprised me on Twitter that Obama got more white votes in 2008 than Kerry did in 2004. According to the 2004 exit polls, Kerry got 41 percent of the white vote as compared to Obama's 43 percent.
