Geeks call it right on the day

It was not just a victory for President Barack Obama, it was validation for the number-crunchers and statistical model geeks, including a New York Times blogger who became a target for conservatives.

Tuesday’s election made a star out of Nate Silver, whose FiveThirtyEight blog for the US daily, tracked the president’s statistical odds and on election day offered a 90.9% probability of an Obama win.

Silver’s model correctly predicted the presidential outcome in all 50 states.