Denial Ain’t Just A River In Egypt: Karl Rove Edition
Perhaps the most amusing moments of election return watching for me last night came after all the networks had called both Ohio and the Presidential Election as a whole and I decided to switch over to Fox News Channel to see how they were handling the news. I would’ve done the same thing with MSNBC had Romney won because, well, it was late at night and schaudenfreude is just so much fun sometimes. What I wandered into was a five minute rant from Karl Rove trying to explain why the network that pays him was wrong to call Ohio and the race for the President:
After this was over, Megyn Kelly did a piece from the the Fox “Decision Desk” where the guy who was in charge of evaluating the numbers and making the calls, whose name escapes me now, basically explained why Rove was full of crap:
And it wasn’t that hard to understand. At that point in the night, less than 50% of heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, basically the City of Cleveland and its immediate suburbs, had not come back. Already, Romney was getting trounced in this county and it was obvious that whatever numbers might come in from elsewhere in the state were not going to be sufficient to overcome the advantage that Cuyahoga would give to the President. In the end, that’s exactly what has happened.
Rove’s five minute spiel, though, is just a masterful example of refusing to admit the obvious even when the numbers are right in front of your face.
Karl Rove has to go explain to various billionaires how he took their money and got them nothing. It’s a slightly gentler version of explaining to the drug lord how you didn’t so much sell his product as snort it all.
@michael reynolds:
Rove did produce some movement:
Democrats picked up two seats in the Senate.
@michael reynolds: Exactly. Rove is pissed because he already bought this election, dammit! I’ve got the receipt right here! I bought Pennsylvania, I bought Florida,and by God I bought Ohio a lobster dinner _and_ took it to a broadway show! I demand to see a manager!
The donors to the GOP superPACS would have had a lot more satisfaction if they’d just spent the money on hookers, booze and drugs.
Karl Rove’s tears are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo delicious!
BTW, what the hell is the deal with Bret Baier’s hair? It’s like someone hired Anton Chigurh to read the news.
ACORN! No…wait, that won’t work. Black Panthers! Mmm, still not doing it. I know, I know, the media did it! Yeah, that’s the one. I’ll just tell the billionaires it was all the media’s fault and they just need to give more money next time.
I do wonder if this is the end of Karl Rove as an influential figure in the Republican party. For the second straight time in a presidential election, he got blown out.
All that cash and TV air time and you only mange to flip NC………
I think that this experiment in unlimited SuperPAC expenditures has shown that there really is only so much money you can spend on political advertising before you start to get diminishing returns.
@Jr:
All that cash and TV air time and you only mange to flip NC………
And Indiana!
I’m actually a little disappointed that Obama did not hold on to these states, though they were very narrow and largely unexpected victories in 2008. I would like to see Democrats gain ground in the south. But you’re right, it was not worth all of that effort to gain 26 electoral votes when you end up losing by 126.
My .02
I blasted all over the net and channel surfed as the results were coming in.
However, toward the end, I settled primarily on FOX.
(… we all slow down to look at the car accident, right? )
Saw this meltdown, and then I watched Shepard Smith really tear into the GOP party, and THEN he was EXTREMELY critical of Romney for delaying his concession speech for over an hour.
THIS is “must watch” TV. Try to find a copy, if you can.
Romney may be over, but Karl Rove is DONE as a strategist and GOP fund raiser.
No opertunity for a “Brooks Brothers” riot when the FOX team themselves shut him down.
Reminds me of “Trading Places” when Mortimer and Randolph tried to SELL !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H2FIf1oH4
Rove himself never said he didn’t think Obama was going to win Ohio, he just stated that it was a bit early to call it. I agree.
@Jeff:
Rove himself never said he didn’t think Obama was going to win Ohio, he just stated that it was a bit early to call it. I agree.
And you were both shown to be wrong by people who paid attention to the numbers instead of ignoring them. Rove wanted to pretend that the huge number of votes that still needed to come in from Cuyahoga County could have still been offset by a much smaller number of votes from other areas of the state. It defied reason, and the numbers guys said so.
@Jeff: “Rove himself never said he didn’t think Obama was going to win Ohio, he just stated that it was a bit early to call it. I agree.”
And both of you were wrong. Rove is a great example of how sometimes the con man is the easiest person in the world to con.
MIke
I wonder if the Koch Brothers are going to have him disappeared?
Speaking of disappeared…I’m still waitg for Jan to show up and admit she is wrong about pretty much everything.
@C. Clavin:
I’m still waitg for Jan to show up and admit she is wrong about pretty much everything.
Don’t hold your breath.
That was, by far, the highlight of the night, especially when they brought in Michael Barone to talk some sense into Rove. It was like watching a live intervention.
The best part of that whole thing for me wasn’t Rove going all Duke & Duke at the end of Trading Places, or even the awkwardness on the set that was caused.
It’s the fact that they had Megyn Kelly walk all the way down to the “Decision Desk” on camera and politely tried to tell Rove to STFU. Too bad Rove continued his spiel after all that. @2:11
I don’t hold it against Karl. If I just wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on an election and got nothing for it, I would try to save as much face as I possibly could too.
@michael reynolds:
It occurs to me that there’s really no difference between Rove and Bernie Madoff, except that Bernie broke the law when he lied to his investors & went to jail. Rove told his billionaires only what they wanted to hear, and they have no one to blame but themselves. So sad…
@Mr. Replica:
Rove didn’t necessarily waste his own money, and I’m pretty sure he’s paid pretty well to blow through that superpac cash.
@MBunge:
Sorry, but I think it’s irresponsible to call a state with a substantial portion of the vote left to be counted.
@Jeff:
Sorry, but I think it’s irresponsible to call a state with a substantial portion of the vote left to be counted.
They do it for just about every state. Get over it.
@michael reynolds: “Karl Rove has to go explain to various billionaires how he took their money and got them nothing. It’s a slightly gentler version of explaining to the drug lord how you didn’t so much sell his product as snort it all. ”
Nah, toads like him are never held accountable, and the billionaires have money to burn on ego projects. And he’s probably got a lot skimmed and stashed.
On Monday Jan posted:
Even Dick Morris admitted he was wrong…even though he tried to blame Christie.
Anyone heard from Jan?
@stonetools: “Karl Rove’s tears are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo delicious! ”
(sssssssssssssslllllllllllllllllllluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp)
@Jeff: “Sorry, but I think it’s irresponsible to call a state with a substantial portion of the vote left to be counted. ”
When the substantial portion is expected to *add* to the current winning margin, it’s not irresponsible.
Where the heck is Jan?
@Geek, Esq.:
The only “movement” Karl Rove produced was that steaming-pile-of-crap explanation. Maybe Romney isn’t the most out-of-touch within the GOP…
Election’s over. Nobody’s paying Jan to comment here any more.
And that is certainly a relief…anything to counter the noxious Citizens United decision…
Careful there…his tears are probably as toxic as the blood of the Xenomorph in the Alien movie…