We still have to go through the ritual of holding the election on Tuesday, but the media’s forecasters have placed their bet, and the overwhelming consensus is that the president will win a second term.

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As the candidates again raced to the swing states where the election will be decided, and as parts of New York and New Jersey remained crippled by Hurricane Sandy, the unmistakable message emanating from the press was that Mitt Romney had fallen short.

A variety of prognosticators in The Washington Post’s Outlook section picked the president to prevail, from The Fix columnist Chris Cillizza to Mad Money maven Jim Cramer (who ludicrously said Obama would capture 400 electoral votes. Stick to stocks, Cramer). The only exceptions were Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez and—for what it’s worth—Andrew Beyer, the paper’s horse-racing columnist.