So Did Social Media Predict the Election?

Nate Silver's being hailed as a Big Data hero after correctly predicting an overwhelming majority of states in Tuesday's presidential election. But how did social media sentiment fair as a barometer of the electorate?

Before the election was called, Mashable reported that Twitter sentiment in the hotly contested battleground states was split: it favored Barack Obama in Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire and Iowa, while Romney had the lead in New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada.

So did the Twitter sentiment "predict" the election? Not really: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada and like…
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