Nate Silver the 'Real Winner' of the Election
Nate Silver, the New York Times' polling guru, forecast President Obama's second election correctly -- and he's earning a lot of praise.
In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 decision, Silver was skyrocketed to mainstream-media fame, as political junkies neurotically check his FiveThirtyEight blog for the latest polling numbers -- and naysayers predicted a Romney win would make him a "one-term celebrity."
He even drew criticism from the Times' public editor Margaret Sullivan for betting MSNBC's Joe Scarborough -- who called Silver "a joke" -- that Obama would win.
But as Obama claimed Ohio and won the election, pundits showered the professional poker player-turned-journalist with praise.
"You know who won the election tonight? Nate Silver," Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC.
Fox News' Bret Baier also acknowledged Silver's accuracy on air.
Stopping short of a full victory lap, Silver plugged his book in a tweet after the Times called the election for Obama.
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