Barone the first to call race for Thune

Steve Forbes has this to say about Michael Barone calling the race for Thune:

In the close Senate race in South Dakota, Barone had Fox declare Republican John Thune the winner over Democrat and Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, even though vote tallies were close and other pundits were observing that precincts with large Indian populations still had not reported in. Barone noted exactly which two counties had the uncounted Indian votes that would help Daschle but then pointed out that there was a heavily Republican suburban county in which only about one-third of the vote had been reported. Barone concluded that that county and the two predominantly Indian ones would effectively cancel each other out and that Thune's lead would hold. He was again right about a close and critical contest.