Youth Vote 2008: What is Thomas Schaller Thinking?

Over at Salon's The War Room, Thomas Schaller is commenting on the same Nate Silver op-ed in the NY Post that Craig and I posted about. Reading his blog post I have to ask - did Tom Schaller even read past the first paragraph, because he totally misrepresents Silver's thesis (emphasis mine):

Silver throws a bit of cold water on the idea that the youth vote is something Democrats should be counting on this year. And history, as he points out, is on his side. But the dismal turnout numbers he cites are for the 18-to-24 subset of the youth vote, which is often grouped more broadly to include those 25 to 29, who register and turn out at higher rates. Still, even 18-to-29-year-olds rank lowest of any American age cohort in turnount.

Silver argues nothing of the kind, as I've written. While the subtitle of the piece presents young voters in a negative light, that subtitle was likely written not by Silver but by a conservative editor at the Post.

Here's what Silver has to say about the piece on his own blog:

In an article in today's New York Post, I argue that Barack Obama actually does have a pretty good likelihood of increasing youth turnout -- and that, moreover, such voters may be undercounted in the polls:

It doesn't sound like Silver is splashing cold water on anything. You can leave a comment for Schaller on the blog. I've already done so.