MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT



Yes, provisional (and other) ballots are still being counted in the presidential election up to and after Thanksgiving.

And it appears likely, according to several sources (including post-election late vote count tabulator David Wasserman , Greg Sargent of the Washington Post and Kos ), that Romney will end up with a rounded 47 percent of the vote. That is because the vast majority of the late vote count (irrelevant to the outcome, but vital for bragging and irony rights) is coming from Democratic leaning states.

So it appears that the odds are that the man, Mitt Romney, who openly expressed his disdain for 47 percent of United States citizens (including those receiving Social Security and Medicare) will end up with the numerical percentage of the vote that will come to define him politically in years to come: 47 percent.

When the media starts making its ten best lists for 2012, this forthcoming final vote count certainly should be at the top of the list of political just desserts – or maybe in this case castor oil for the chief symbolic taker from the working class and needy.

What's even more revealing of Romney's losing political strategy (it's hard to tell what ideas he was running on because they shifted from day to day) is that such a significant percentage of the 47 percent of his vote count came from the Southern region (minus Florida) where eight of the top ten states receiving more money from the federal government than the residents pay collectively in taxes are located. So even among Romney's symbolically resonant 47% of the vote (when rounded off), many of his supporters were "takers" (not to mention the senior vote, which he won, which obviously includes everyone over 65 on Social Security and Medicare).

Ah, that 47 percent sneering comment is coming back to haunt Mitt Romney. Maybe it's just divine justice.

(Photo: Ho John Lee)