Daily Show

Jessica Hillyard from pushback has a nice post up about Luke Russert that I wanted to echo.

Some people have discounted Luke Russert, speculating that his father’s unfortunate early death led some NBC higher-ups to offer him a job as a correspondent out of pity. Even though it’s easy to jump to such a conclusion upon seeing a privileged rookie ascend the career ladder so quickly, Russert has a particularly keen insight into our generation. In an interview with mediabistro.com, he demonstrates that he certainly has done his homework:

It seems that every election storyline is always, “young people will be coming out in record numbers,” and it never seems to happen. Do you think this year will be any different?

I do. From what I’ve seen on the ground, it certainly looks like kids will turn up in bigger numbers this year. But if you just look at the trajectory of the numbers, if we go from 2000 to 2004, there was a nine point increase in the number of kids who came out to vote. [For] the midterm elections in 2002 to 2006, there was a substantial increase as well, I believe in the range of eight to 10 points. At the primaries, 6.6 million young folks turned out to participate. So, given all of those statistics and those numbers, on paper it certainly looks like the youth vote will come this election.

That being said, no one really knows for sure. There [are] massive new voter registration numbers. If you look at the state of Virginia, there’s been since January, I think, about four or five hundred thousand people who have been registered to vote. Of those hundreds of thousands, people under 34 make up 62 percent of that new number. So if those folks come out to vote in a place like Virginia, it could really sway things. And I think they will. I mean, if they don’t come out in this election, I don’t know when they ever will come.

On one hand I agree with Jessica -- it's impressive and refreshing to me that Luke is right on with this topic, acting as an advocate for our movement in the traditional media and dispelling some of the lazy journalism that fails to recognize a pattern that has emerged in three straight election cycles now. A few weeks back, Russert appeared on Morning Joe with Daily Show writer Larry Wilmore. When asked if he thought youth would turn out in 2008, Wilmore said "absolutely not," and he and Willie Geist, the interviewer, yukked it up, totally ignorant about their ignorance. And then Russert stepped in and slowly explained what we already know. Watch for yourself (sorry about the beep at the beginning -- I looked for another video of the same clip but couldn't find it):

At 1:10, Russert disagrees, as he explains the trajectory, rattling off the numbers that show improvement from 2002 to 2006 and the improvement in turnout from 2000 to 2004. Unfortunately Geist and Wilmore laugh it off, and Geist still shows he has no clue what he's talking about, equating the whole youth vote with "urban hipsters" wearing Obama paraphernalia, saying he doesn't think they'll get out of bed to vote.

Unfortunately this statement is why I might add one caveat onto Jessica's analysis. While Russert gets the job done and knows everything he needs to know, blowhards like Geist don't take him seriously enough because he's not someone they can suck up to. He's still "young," and therefore no matter how many facts he offers, Geist (and others) will never feel motivated enough by someone like Russert to actually do some journalism and check out the numbers for himself.

Ouch.

I'm hugely disappointed with Jon Stewart for his interview with John McCain last night. Time and again, he seemed about to ask a tough question, only to crack a joke and let McCain slide.

On the Ledbetter Fair Pay issue, he let McCain seem like a gracious candidate with high integrity for allowing a young women in a townhall to criticize him, yet when presented with the opportunity, Stewart didn't drill down and address the woman's real concern, which is that McCain doesn't support fair pay for women.

Stewart brought up Reverend Wright, but instead of asking about Hagee, he allowed McCain to crack some jokes at Bush's expense and seem like an independent maverick.

Stewart brought up Hamas's "endorsement" of Barack Obama and allowed McCain to infer that it was politically significant (and probably meaningful for our security).

Maybe I'm a fool to expect the Daily Show to tear down McCain's maverick image with their satirical spots and tough questions, but I had hopes. Jon Stewart has always loved McCain and it seems that's not going to change anytime soon. Huge letdown. We're going to need to rebrand McCain on our own.

Jason Rae, co-chair of the DNC Youth Council and the youngest Super Delegate was kind enough to let the Daily Show lampoon him earlier this week. He's a good sport about it.

My second guest post at TPM Cafe is now live - The Conservative Youth Factory. Go check it out.

While you are waiting for today's returns to come in, check out these quick hits.

• At The Albany Project, Phillip Anderson lets us know about two youthful primary challengers to New York State Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver.
• Marc Ambinder lets us know that Hillary Clinton appeared on the Daily Show last night.
• The College Republicans have launched a new website (that looks half decent). The blog seems to consist of repetitive bad puns about Barack Obama's name. Go join THE STORM!
• Rock the Vote alerts me to the fact that Larry King recently ran segments on the youth vote featuring Josh Groban and Wyclef Jean. Why is it that singers who are older than me (Wyclef) or appeal to my mother (Groban) get to speak for my generation? (Not to look a gift-horse in the mouth - celebrity involvement is better than no involvement, and this is really a critique of Larry King, not Rock the Vote, Groban or Wyclef).

For your afternoon viewing pleasure. And if you've missed it, YouTube is planning to depose both Stewart and Colbert in their case against Viacom.

In case you missed it, last night our pals at Drinking Liberally were on The Daily Show in a segment with John Oliver about the YouTube/CNN debates. Watch the crew live up to their motto - saving democracy one pint at a time.

Things in the world of progressive youth politics worth checking out today:

• The Pew Research Center for People and the Press confirms that viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are still the most politically informed Americans. Score another one for the stoned slacker brigades.
• David All at Tech President outlines five types of viral video he'd like to see by November 2008 (with examples). It's a well thought-out selection (though not comprehensive), and some of his examples are right on the money.
• Lauren Wolfe, president of the College Democrats, was on MyDD Blog Talk Radio this weekend discussing the College Dems new New Media strategy. Facebook, Video, Podcasts and a new website launching in the fall, listen here (iTunes, Windows Media).
• Finally, a few weeks ago we told you that Mitt Romney was trying to entice young people to fundraise for his campaign by offering them 10% of all they raise above $1,000. Turns out that may not be so ethical.