Nate Silver is OUT Magazine's Person of the Year

Image from Out Magazine.

Number-crunching election wizard Nate Silver was, for a time, my island of sanity in the choppy waters after the first presidential debate. Remember that? Against all odds, after President Obama's lackluster performance, Mitt Romney's star started to shine. A legend was built that Romney was a-mah-zing in the debate (he wasn't), and that he had momentum (he didn't). Nate Silver was almost alone in his quiet, calm assertion: it's all cool. Yes, Romney had ticked up, but it was a ripple, not a tidal wave. Barring a game changing event, Obama would win, and win handily. The rest of the debates went well, but the punditry was all, "Mittmentum!" Nate was still serene. Ultimately, he'd predicted exactly how the election would go, to the state.

So, Nate Silver is now a star. The whole country is going to be paying attention to him in 2014 and especially 2016. I don't know what he's going to do to keep himself busy in the meantime, but for sure he can write his own ticket.

[Excerpt]

Nate Silver: Person of the Year

. . .For months in the run-up to the election, Silver, editor of FiveThirtyEight, a blog hosted by The New York Times, had been analyzing the polling data and calmly explaining, to the contempt of pundits on Fox and the gratitude of viewers of MSNBC, why Obama had the election sewn up. His quiet confidence—he bet Joe Scarborough $2,000 that the president would win re-election— attracted fans and haters alike.. . .

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