Karl Rove has made nice with Fox News following a night of media meta mockey.
A veteran of late night election agony -- see: Florida, 2000 -- Rove geared up for a long evening on Tuesday. So when Fox News, the network on whose air he was appearing, called pivotal swing state Ohio for President Obama, he was quite upset, and confronted the network's "decision desk" about the choice. It became an awkward moment of frustration on the cable outlet -- and it didn't go unnoticed on rival station MSNBC.
STORY: Obama's Re-Election: What Pundits are Saying
“I don’t mean to cross-advertise here, but I want to note that conservative cable news network Fox News Channel – Fox News Channel called Ohio for Obama, but the on-air talent is refusing to concede that they believe it,” Rachel Maddow said Tuesday night.
Quipped Chris Matthews, "Can you define that word ‘talent’ for the people who are not in this industry? They happen to have positions. It doesn’t say anything about their quality."
Maddow added that Rove's PAC, American Crossroads, spent millions in support of Mitt Romney's candidacy. And when he returned to Fox on Wednesday, Rove spoke about how the GOP can right the issues that narrows its demographics in Tuesday's election.
PHOTOS: Hollywood Hits the Campaign Trail for Obama, Romney
"Basically Obama kept the coalition that he had in 2008, only it was a little bit smaller," he reasoned, adding, "this will be the first president re-elected for a second term with a smaller percentage of the vote than" his first election.
"If we're gonna win in the future, Republicans are gonna have to do better among Latinos and among women," Rove said, noting that Obama lost three percent in support from women.
"We need to do a better job of making our economic case," he noted. "This was not a strategic race, it was a tactical one."
