ABSTRACT
The iconography expressed the zeitgeist, which involved data. A video clip, spread virally with some help from gloating Democrats, showed Republican strategist Karl Rove in evident consternation, objecting to the decision by Fox News statisticians to call Ohio, and with it the 2012 presidential election, for President Barack Obama. Rove, the man who had charted George W. Bush's political rise and now a regular commentator on Fox, felt there were too many outstanding precincts with enough potential Republican votes to tip the state the other way. So Fox anchor Megan Kelly walked, under camera's gaze, down a succession of white corridors to the Fox ‘decisions desk’, where she interviewed two of the statisticians who had made the call. They told her that Cuyahoga County, containing overwhelmingly Democratic Cleveland, had significant precincts still to report. ‘99.95%’ sure of Obama's victory, said one of them. ‘There just aren't enough Republican votes left for Romney to get there,’ said another. Fox News at this point was showing a split screen with giddy celebrations at the Obama campaign's Chicago headquarters on one half, and Rove still protesting on the other. At another point in the evening, Kelly asked Rove: ‘Is this just math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better, or is this real?’
