My election night route to knowing the election was Won

Last edited Wed Nov 7, 2012, 03:48 PM - Edit history (3)

Everyone has their own benchmarks of when they knew. For me these five things jumped my confidence level from its starting 90% up to 92%, 94%, 96%, 98% and 100%.

1) The exit poll reports showing that Obama and Romney were tied among voters on who could help the economy more. In pre-election polls Romney pulled 55%-60% on that question.

2) Michigan being called as soon as it closed.

3) Britt Hume leading a discussion on Fox, as of about 8:01, about what Romney had done wrong. And discussing the revelation that a lot of self-described moderates are actually liberals, but call themselves moderates because the Republicans made liberal a dirty word.

4) New Hampshire called for Obama. That was important. It meant that Colorado joined the ranks of the "Obama only needs one of these states" group.

5) John King saying that most of the outstanding vote remaining in Ohio was Cuyahoga county and that Romney's margins in western Iowa were too small. For me, that was the 100% point.

I know I was at 100% at that point because I had no strong reaction when NBC later called the race, beyond some mild relief.