Not even a math wizard like Nate Silver (gulp, gulp) could've seen this one coming.
At approximately 11:15 pm EST on Tuesday, November 6—a date which will live in infamy—the great state of Ohio, and thus the election, was called for Obama-Biden.
This news sent shockwaves (but no fireworks) throughout Boston.
The Romney-Ryan campaign, feeling as though they had just been mugged, immediately cancelled all of their credit cards, and reached out to Karl Rove for assistance.
Unfortunately for them, Rove soon discovered that he couldn't buy his way out of their predicament; and Donald Trump's call for revolution was quickly shot down by Brian Williams.
In the days and weeks ahead, there will be much discussion about how such a colossal failure could've occurred; but it seems pretty clear—President Obama succeeded in suppressing the white vote, and convincing teh womenz that Mitt Romney would ship them off to "rape camps."
Also, too.
It appears that those lazy minorities aren't so lazy after all.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK); Roundtable: Rep.-Elect Joaquìn Castro (D-TX), Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt, Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bob Woodward (Washington Post) and Chuck Todd (NBC News).
Face the Nation: Obama Campaign Senior Adviser David Axelrod; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Roundtable: Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal), Dee Dee Myers (Vanity Fair), David Gergen (CNN) and John Dickerson (CBS News).
This Week: Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA); Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA); Roundtable: Greta van Susteren (Fox News), Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Paul Gigot (Wall Street Journal) and Katrina vanden Heuvel (The Nation).
Fox News Sunday: Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND); Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN); Rep. Tom Price (R-GA); Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Roundtable: Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard), Former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Radio Host Laura Ingraham and Kirsten Powers (Daily Beast/Newsweek).
State of the Union: Rep. Peter King (R-NY); Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ); Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA); Former GOP Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman; Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; Gary Bauer (American Values); Reliable Sources: Jackie Kucinich (USA Today); Peter Baker (New York Times); Fred Francis (Formerly of NBC News); Adam Buckman (Xfinity.com).
The Chris Matthews Show: Kathleen Parker (Washington Post); Bob Woodward (Washington Post); Helene Cooper (New York Times); David Ignatius (Washington Post).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Former Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein; David Gergen (CNN); Former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta; Charles Duhigg (New York Times).
Up with Chris Hayes: Rep.-Elect Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY); Labor Economist Teresa Ghilarducci; Former Partner at Bain Capital Edward Conard; Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Former TARP Special Investigator General Neil Barofsky; Former President of UBS Investment Bank Rober Wolf; Molly Ball (The Atlantic).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: a report from the NYC coastal neighborhood of Belle Harbor, which suffere major damage from Hurricane Sandy (preview); a report on the hundreds of thousands of U.S. high-tech factory jobs that are not filled because employers can't find qualified people (preview); and, an interview with author/historian David McCullough about the making of the Brooklyn Bridge (preview).
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart took account of Karl Rove's epic election night meltdown.
The Daily Show
Monday: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R)
Tuesday: Actor/Comedian Jason Sudekis
Wednesday: Author Jon Meacham
Thursday: Andrew Napolitano (Fox News)
And Stephen Colbert settled in for four more years of hopey change.
The Colbert Report
Monday: Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns
Tuesday: Former GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich
Wednesday: Playwright/Screenwriter Tony Kushner
Thursday: Author Chris Stringer
In other election news...
Although anti-science Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) ran unopposed, he did face a strong challenge from write-in candidate Charles Darwin.
Almost 4,000 Athens voters wrote in Charles Darwin (or some variation thereof) against U.S Rep. Paul Broun, giving the father of evolution 16 percent of the vote, according to a list of write-in votes the Athens-Clarke Board of Elections released this morning. [...]
Overall, 6,773 people cast write-in votes in the 10th Congressional District race, including about 3,829 votes for Darwin. Another 23,592 people skipped over the race entirely. Only 42 percent of Athenians who voted pressed the button for Broun. [...]
The write-in votes were a hodgepodge of hundreds of often-misspelled real local residents, celebrities, fictional characters, inanimate objects and abstract concepts.
A few examples: Bacon, Batman, Bertis Downs, Beyonce, Big Bird, Bill Nye, Brian Brodrick, Burning Bag of Dog Shit, Captain Jack Sparrow, "Carl" Marx, Darth Vader, Democrote, Doc Eldridge, Doritos, Doug McKillip, George Bush, Guy Fawkes, Gwen O'Looney, Jarvis Jones, Jay-Z, Hugh Acheson, Led Zeppelin, Michael Stipe, Randy Macho Man Savage, Ron Paul, Russell Edwards, Satan, Science, Spongebob, Stephen Colbert, Taylor Swift, Vermin Supreme, Yoda, Zelda and Zell Miller.
Meanwhile...
Peggy Noonan stood by her prediction that, based on her feelings, Mitt Romney would win the election.
President Obama did not lose, he won. It was not all that close. There was enthusiasm on his side. Mitt Romney's assumed base did not fully emerge, or rather emerged as smaller than it used to be. He appears to have received fewer votes than John McCain. The last rallies of his campaign neither signaled nor reflected a Republican resurgence. Mr Romney's air of peaceful dynamism was the product of a false optimism that, in the closing days, buoyed some conservatives and swept some Republicans. While GOP voters were proud to assert their support with lawn signs, Democratic professionals were quietly organizing, data mining and turning out the vote. Their effort was a bit of a masterpiece; it will likely change national politics forever. Mr. Obama was perhaps not joyless but dogged, determined, and tired.
Apart from those points, everything in my blog post of Nov. 5 stands.
And, speaking of Romney...
It turns out that the election wasn't all that he lost this week.
Real friends stick with you through good times and bad.
By that measure, many of Mitt Romney’s Facebook friends weren't real friends at all: In the three days after Romney conceded the Presidential election to Barack Obama, more than 50,000 users have unliked his page.
As noted by the San Francisco Chronicle, Romney and Obama were both steadily gaining fans on both Facebook and Twitter through Tuesday evening, though Obama gained about five times as many on both networks.
Soon after Romney conceded the election, though, his social media followers began dropping quickly. Since 11:30 on Tuesday, more than 55,025 users have unliked the Massachusetts Governor, at a rate of about 847 an hour.
Elections have consequences.
- Trix