PLANK NOVEMBER 6, 2012
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Election night, before the results come in, is awfully dull on cable news. Anchors desperate to fill the air resort to factoids about where, for instance, the most pickup trucks in the country are sold and What It Means. (Virginia, for the record, per MSNBC. What it means remains to be seen.) On Fox, the factoids were less automotively focused. “Independents are breaking for Romney in most states,” Michael Barone told Megyn Kelly at 7:24 p.m., before anyone had broken for much of anything, really. There, as everywhere, it was mostly a waiting game. “We have to wait and see how many white men turn out," Kristen Powers said.
Results began to come in that were unfavorable to Romney. Powers revised her urgency. “They need more white people voting, basically.” Suffragettes, even.
Next up to analyze the “surprising” closeness of the race: Bill O’Reilly, of whom Kelly asked, “How do you think it got so tight?” The answer was a longer, bait-ier version of Powers’ analysis.
“It’s not a traditional America anymore. There are fifty percent of the voting public who want stuff. They want things. Who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it and he ran on it. ... Twenty years ago, President Obama would have been roundly defeated by an establishment candidate like Mitt Romney. The white establishment is now the minority. And the voters, many of them, feel that economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see Hispanics vote for President Obama, overwhelming for President Obama, and women will probably break President Obama’s way.”
“Stuff.” Those welfare mothers in their Cadillacs sure have been driving around for a long time looking for stuff.
Mike Huckabee, who may have been watching O’Reilly before his own appearance, “I think Republicans have done a pathetic job of reaching out to people of color. It’s something we have got to work on.” It was, to say the least, an understatement.
When it was Karl Rove’s turn to bat, he traded the iPad he’d been using earlier for a white board scrawled with data about swing states. The race was too close to call in either direction in those states—which, at least in Virginia and Florida, was good news for Obama—but Rove knows a thing or two about spin. Chris Wallace summed up his presentation: “Not that you’re calling the race, but you’re saying good news for Romney in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia?” The magic of Fox: Even if there aren’t enough white voters, there will always be white boards.
10 comments
What do you expect from Fox Views? You don't expect them to report the news, do you? Funny, how all the people who voted for Obama I Know are white. O'Reilly is one of those stupid partisans who believes his own propaganda. Nothing stupider than a propagandist who believes what he types.
- arnon1
November 6, 2012 at 10:44pm
The best thing that could happen to America is if FOX NEWS went dark. So to speak.
- Sophia
November 6, 2012 at 11:08pm
Needz moar Angree wite peeple. I know it is crass but I am going to suck down the sweet nectar of schadenfreude for a day or two.
- blackton
November 6, 2012 at 11:26pm
blackton, shall we dogpile on the resident TNR nutjobs as well?
- zardoz67
November 7, 2012 at 12:08am
Can't wait till the repubs settle on a party line explanation so seattleeng can come deliver it to us.
- ReganaD
November 7, 2012 at 12:19am
I was flipping between a few channels during the course of the night and was lucky enough to be watching Fox when they called the election for Obama. I've never seen people in such blatant denial. Their on air personalities kept saying it couldn't be correct and kept blaming it on their "decision desk". They actually sent someone down to the "decision desk" to take them to task for their apostasy. She didn't understand math, so all she could do was shrug when they tried to explain what was happening. They then went to Rove who kept spinning crazy scenarios in which Romney would win Ohio, while it became clear that even winning Ohio wouldn't save him. They then moved onto looking at Romney's lead in the popular vote until that disappeared. It was a great night to watch Fox News.
- Attrill
November 7, 2012 at 3:08am
"There are fifty percent of the voting public who want stuff." -- Seriously, Fox-News retreaded the 47% argument? On the air-waves? In prime-time? I guess this reveals how they think politics works. Our guy couldn't bribe the electorate as good as their guy could, so our guy is going to lose. It's all bribery and money to them, and they're only sad they couldn't bribe enough people. Appalling. We really need the Fairness Doctrine back. Without it, Murdoch/Ailes/the Kock Brothers will continue to distort the Conservative media into positions more and more disconnected from reality.
- AllanL5
November 7, 2012 at 9:23am
"It's not traditional America any more." Amen, brother, and Hallelujah. Happy days are here again, and maybe, just maybe, we have some happy years ahead of us.
- GeoffG
November 7, 2012 at 9:41am
Hopefully we've seen the last of the brilliant strategist Karl Rove. How many losing elections does he have to mastermind before people stop listening? As for race baiting, yesterday Wonkette had a hilarious piece mocking Fox and Friend's report on the scary intimidating New Black Panther standing outside a Philly polling place. "He's wearing what appears to be semi-military clothes" blathered Fox and Friends. "He's standing at what could be called 'parade rest' "some may say it's intimidating." And the money shot? The New Black Panther holding the door open for an elderly white lady and saying good morning.
- dubyadoubte
November 7, 2012 at 12:08pm
If anyone wants to have even more of that weird German word i can't spell, they should definitely check out prostitute toe-sucker Dick Morris's twitter feed. https://twitter.com/DickMorrisTweet "don't give up" tweeted 10pm eastern. You go, Dick, you plucky man, you.
- miceelf
November 7, 2012 at 12:18pm