Karl Rove: Pennsylvania sealed Trump's electoral fate, gave Biden win
Fox News contributor Karl Rove reacts to projection Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president.
It has been an eventful, unsettling year: A deadly virus struck without warning and claimed almost a quarter-million American lives; a lockdown demolished personal routines and left us gasping for normality; a sudden, deep recession snatched newfound prosperity from many families; and now a rocketlike recovery lifts up some but leaves many on the launchpad. So why not finish out 2020 with a misforecast election as the finale?
Pundits predicted a blue tsunami of historic proportions that would carry Democrats into the White House, flip the U.S. Senate, increase Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s caucus by as many as 20 seats, and transform a basketful of red-state legislatures into blue ones just in time for redistricting in 2021. Well, the White House changed hands. But none of the rest happened.
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The final RealClearPolitics average of polls predicted Joe Biden would win the popular vote by 7.2 percentage points. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com put Mr. Biden’s likely margin at 8 points. The Cook Political Report had it at “more like 9 or 10 points.” As of Wednesday, with some ballots yet to be counted in California and New York, President Trump trailed Mr. Biden by 3.3 points.
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Voter turnout was up. Once everything is counted, the turnout rate will likely reach 66.5%, the highest since 1908’s barnburner between William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan. But the nature of this enthusiasm differed by party. The Fox News Voter Analysis found 51% of Biden supporters voted more against Mr. Trump than for the Democratic candidate, while 79% of Mr. Trump’s backers voted more for him than against Mr. Biden.
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