Rick Folbaum, guest hosting Happening Now yesterday, made a deliberate effort to suggest the election results last week were illegitimate. First, he hyped Allen West’s doomed efforts to contest the election he clearly lost and then Folbaum fear mongered about a high turnout in Philadelphia. But despite the lack of any hard facts, Folbaum had his two guests debate his inflammatory supposition that the media is “ignoring” the story.
Much of the discussion was about the General Petraeus scandal. But at 3:36, Folbaum said sympathetically that West is trying to “get a full counting” of all the early ballots. Then, with hammy shock, Folbaum exclaimed, “And then you have the turnout number in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Historic highs! That we’re also reporting on here at Fox today." Turning to guest Alan Colmes, Folbaum said, "Alan, the media so, sort of quick to jump on the story that President Obama has won a second term. Is the mainstream media… ignoring some of these other election-related stories?”
I’m not sure what Folbaum was referring to in Philadelphia but as far as West is concerned, even Republicans admit his recount is a lost cause. Politico, which had a lengthy piece on West’s call for a recount yesterday, reported:
Some Republican officials, however, privately acknowledge that West has few legal avenues to pursue and that, absent a major shift in the trajectory of the vote count, will soon come under pressure to concede.
Colmes did a great job smacking down the “issue.”
Is there any question that (Obama) won a second term? Are we questioning whether he actually won a second term? I mean, come on! When does this denial stop? Come on. In terms of Allen West, he’s outside the margin of error. Allen West can’t concede the election. I mean, there’s no question that Allen West lost this race. Well, let’s move on. The right wing is going to have to accept that they lost this election on many, many levels.
Unfortunately for Fox, the conservative guest, Jim Pinkerton agreed. “I gotta say I think Allen West lost too. I’m not totally shocked, frankly.”