Barone did yeoman's work for Fox News on Election Night. He was articulate, lucid, measured and demonstrably right.
I've gained a lot of respect for him, and this column solidifies it.
I've said elsewhere that Barone deserves some sort of award for his work on Fox on Election Night. Never seen anything like it. I was fascinated by the way he zeroed in knowledgeably on county after county...a veritable human election computer.
Yeah he was great on Fox.He nailed Ohio county by county.
It must have killed Barone, along with Brit and the others, that Fox apparently made a conscious decision not to be the first to call the election for Bush. I suspect that that decision (to freeze up the map) came from Roger. Meanwhile, the other networks apparently decided to play a game of chicken with Fox (and each other) on calling the election. Weird night.
The funny thing is, Fox (and I believe NBC) froze up at 269 electoral votes but they should have called the election for Bush anyway, since at that point the best Kerry could do if he won out was tie at 269. Election over - - the House of Representatives, clearly and firmly in GOP hands, would then have re-elected Bush.
In other words, Bush was the winner at 269 but Fox (and everybody else) still failed to call the election for Bush even though the race was over. Curiouser still was the fact that this (obvious) situation was never addressed by Fox (unless I missed it somehow).