Speaking to a crowd in Pennsylvania today, Bill Clinton offered a theory for why Hillary is less popular than Barack Obama with younger voters:
"I think there is a big reason there's an age difference in a lot of these polls," he said. "Because once you've reached a certain age, you won't sit there and listen to somebody tell you there's really no difference between what happened in the Bush years and the Clinton years; that there's not much difference in how small-town Pennsylvania fared when I was president, and in this decade."
Clinton's argument is curious for a number of reason. Firstly, it paints younger voters are gullible and historically ignorant. Second, Bill Clinton carried the youth vote in 1992. In fact, in 1992, a higher percentage of young people turned out to vote than had in decades, and they voted for Clinton more often than not. Overall, younger voters are much more likely to self-identify as Democrats than are older voters. Any argument that older voters are necessarily wiser is bizarre to begin with; Bill Clinton making that argument is absurd.
--Jordan Michael Smith
