Page 3 Profile: Karl Rove, Republican strategist

Sharing in the election joy?

Hardly. Rove was a pundit for Fox News and he certainly wasn't there in the interest of balance. Rove, the former deputy chief of staff in George W Bush's government, went into meltdown as the right-wing channel's backroom staff called Ohio for Obama – effectively meaning the Democrat had won a second term.

Did he storm off?

No, but he did question the network's decision. Although many of the Ohio counties still to declare were historically Democrat, Rove said you couldn't rule out any surprises. "I'd be very cautious about intruding into the process," he said. Host Megyn Kelly duly power-walked down the backstage corridors to perform a "little interrogation" on the off-screen number-crunchers. One said: "We're actually quite comfortable with the call in Ohio, there's too much Obama vote outstanding that we know is going to come in." But Rove remained defiant. And wrong.

Given that it's Fox, it could have been worse

Indeed. As Foxs' disappointed pro-Romney pundits began the blame game, analyst Kirsten Powers sighed: "We are becoming a more brown country", while Bill O'Reilly chimed in with, "the white establishment is now the minority". But in some ways this election was a victory for Rove, or at least his methods. In 2004 he tore down John Kerry's Vietnam War record, and this year Mitt Romney was subjected to a character assassination by the Democrats.

And his thoughts on the loss?

"We need to do better on making our economic arguments in ways the ordinary American can relate to," he said on – where else? – Fox News.