*While the rest of the networks were showing celebrations in Chicago, Times Square and outside the White House after calling the election for President Obama, Fox News was almost comical in its stubborn refusal to agree with its own number crunchers who saw Ohio as a lost cause for Mitt Romney.
Folks who flipped to Fox’s coverage immediately after Obama’s win saw Republican strategist Karl Rove, leader of a huge conservative Super PAC, arguing that Ohio was still in play for Romney; and in what is sure to be a “Saturday Night Live” skit, anchor Megyn Kelly walking for nearly two minutes of awkward airtime from the anchor desk to a back office where staffers responsible for covering the polls were hunkered down.
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s long walk to the numbers crunchers, Nov. 6, 2012
She reached the number-crunchers, only to have them repudiate Rove on live television.
“We’re actually quite comfortable with the call in Ohio,” one of them said. Another said he was “99.9 percent” certain that the president had been re-elected.
“There just aren’t enough Republican votes left for Mitt Romney to get there,” a fellow decision desk member added.
When Rove continued to contest the call, Kelly responded, exasperatedly “They know the science!”
“They’re not listening to Karl,” she continued with some finality, as she went to a break.
Below, watch Rove try to argue that the race isn’t over, and Kelly asking the decision desk to confirm its call:
As I said earlier, even if Obama didn’t get Ohio (and Florida), he would still win with 285 electoral votes.
Last night I saw the point which karl Rove was making about Romney seeming to be closing in on Obama in Ohio. But it also seemed the he was conveniently forgetting that the west coast states were coming later. Maybe he was in denial that it was a forgone conclusion that California and its 55 votes would go to Obama even before the first ballot was counted.