Concession brawl - Mike Allen - POLITICO:
It’s one of the iconic moments in American politics — never rehearsed, and never pleasant. The loser of a long, expensive presidential campaign telephones the victor with carefully worded pleasantries after the networks have declared a winner. Then the two go before their supporters and a global television audience.
But that ritual — designed to signal the polite end of the campaign, and the commitment to unite the country behind the winner — has sparked one final disagreement between the still-bitter camps of President Barack Obama and his 2012 rival, Mitt Romney, with eyewitnesses to the concession call lining up on Thursday to dispute just what was said between the two men.
At issue isn’t just the political spin, but a footnote of history, destined to be reviewed by anyone who writes about the 2012 presidential race.