As exit polling data begins to be released, remember this pithy quote from Sam Feist, political director at CNN: “Exit poll information in the hands of trained professionals is perfectly fine. Exit poll information in the hand of the general public, who may not understand what it means or stands for, can be dangerous.”

Clearly the mainstream media, with its history of handling exit polls and early returns so professionally, and making such accurate predictions based on them, is an authority unto itself on this issue, and one which hoi polloi, who clearly aren’t smart enough to read the tea leaves that are exit polls, should bow down to.

Just don’t mention 2000, when networks called Florida before the panhandle had finished voting (and a month before the result was certified), or 2004, when the exit polling experts in the MSM reported that John Kerry was running away with the presidential election. After all, you — hoi polloi who are not “trained professionals” — simply “don’t understand” how those MSM experts were right all along.