Brendan Nyhan

Karl Rove on THE math

Karl Rove’s pre-election exchange with NPR’s Robert Siegel is hilarious:

SIEGEL: We’re in the home stretch, though, and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about –

ROVE: Not that you would be exhibiting a bias …

SIEGEL: I’m looking at all the same polls that you’re looking at every day.

ROVE: No, you’re not. No, you’re not.

SIEGEL: No, I’m not.

ROVE: No, you’re not. You’re not. I’m looking at 68 polls a week. You may be looking at four or five public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally but that do not impact the outcome of –

SIEGEL: I’m looking at main races between – certainly Senate races.

ROVE: Well, like the poll today showing that Corker’s ahead in Tennessee, or the poll showing that Allen is pulling away in the Virginia Senate race.

SIEGEL: Leading Webb in Virginia, yeah.

ROVE: Exactly.

SIEGEL: But you’ve seen the DeWine race and the Santorum race – I don’t want to have you call races.

ROVE: Yeah, I’m looking at all these, Robert, and adding them up, and I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math, but you’re entitled to your math, I’m entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: Well, I don’t know if we’re entitled to our different math, but you’re certainly –

ROVE: I said THE math. I said you’re entitled to yours.

Maybe Rove thought the White House could could create its own reality in which “THE math” showed a Republican win.

PS I thought conservatives opposed the new math!