 A companion article on his "FiveThirtyEight" blog, "The Fundamentals Now Favor Obama", explained how the model and the facts on the ground had changed between November and February.Silver published the first iteration of his 2012 general election forecasts on June 7, 2012.According to the model, at that time Barack Obama was projected to win 291 electoral votes—21 more than the 270 required for a majority.