Posted on 11/04/2004 12:50:49 PM PST by Cableguy
[only intersting parts are this]
The critical moment came at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, when, shortly after Florida had been painted red for Mr. Bush, Fox News declared that Ohio - and, very likely, the presidency - was in Republican hands.
Howard Wolfson, a strategist, burst into the "boiler room" in Washington where the brain trust was huddled and said, "we have 30 seconds" to stop the other networks from following suit.
The campaign's pollster, Mark Mellman, and the renowned organizer Michael Whouley quickly dialed ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC - and all but the last refrained from calling the race through the night. Then Mr. Wolfson banged out a simple, two-line statement expressing confidence that Mr. Kerry would win Ohio once the remaining ballots were counted.
"What was driving our decision making was the memory of how in 2000, by allowing Florida to go for Bush, a lot of momentum was blocked," said one person who was in the room. "Our whole goal was stop the train from moving that way."
Train stopped, lawyers and strategists at the campaign's Washington headquarters prepared court papers to challenge Ohio's process for counting provisional ballots, and made spreadsheets comparing each county's provisional ballots with its margin of victory or defeat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Disgraceful.
MSM - the media wing of the Democratic Party!
They were pimping!.......
More of the same from the part of "progressives"!
I really can't tell you all the things I'd like to do to Howard Wolfson.......... Every time I see his face, I conjure up thoughts that would certainly incarcerate me if they were anything but thoughts.
Kudos to NBC in this case though. Even though they downplayed it later, they did go ahead and call OH as they should have.
no matter how you read it, Bush wins and they lose!
Kudos to NBC. The rest can add this to their sorry resumes.
What a bunch of sickos.
I guess this is because at 12:41 am on Wednesday morning there were so many people who had yet to get in their cars and go to the polls? Is that the "momentum" that would have been stopped?
I think even the polls in Hawaii were closed at that point.
The NY Times didn't call Ohio for Kerry until yesterday evening, about 6:30pm eastern time. The Kerry campaign should give them some kind of award for being such loyal troopers!
I love it when a plan comes apart.
Really, I don't think anyone including FNC matches NBC for detail minded, comprehensive reporting.
The Dems can order the media to do anything. How does anyone even watch them?
This doesn't surprise me. I felt this was true when I heard the MSM monday morning. They obviously didn't want to call Ohio to Bush until Kerry had decided he had lost...I hope they don't think that they still look like "journalists.":-)
Howard Wolfson, a strategist, burst into the "boiler room" in Washington where the brain trust was huddled and said, "we have 30 seconds" to stop the other networks from following suit.
Meaning the representatives of CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN who were garrisoned there needed to get out their cell phones immediately. Unfortunately, the NBC rep was in the men's room.
Really, I don't think anyone including FNC matches NBC for detail minded, comprehensive reporting.
ROFLMAO
According to at least three sources, one inside the Kerry campaign, and two outside of it, but with ties to senior Kerry advisers, some of the "early polling numbers" were in fact direct reports from Kerry campaign or Democratic Party operatives on the ground in such critical states as Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin. According to a Washington lobbyist with knowledge of the numbers, the numbers were packaged together so as to appear to be exit poll results. They were then scrubbed through several sources to land in the lap of sympathetic bloggers who these operatives believed would put the numbers up with little question.
Some of the numbers claimed to be exit polling data that showed Kerry with a 8-1 voter ratio. As soon as the numbers hit the Internet, panic set in.
"It was awful," says a Republican House staffer. "You just felt sick when you saw the numbers."
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