Slate On Clinton's New Math

Heh, Tom Noah skewers the fake metrics deployed by Hillary Clinton's campaign, given that she is neither going to win the popular vote or the delegate count:

As Clinton's prospects dim, her preferred metrics grow more rococo. The Democrats, Clinton now argues, can't afford to nominate someone who can't carry the big, industrial states that matter in the Electoral College. Never mind that, after the 2000 election, Clinton said the Electoral College should be abolishedalas), or that in the midst of an economic recession, it's hard to imagine Clinton supporters in hard-hit places like Ohio and Pennsylvania voting for the party in power. Obama's on the ropes, Clinton argues, because he spent three times as much as she did and still lost Pennsylvania to her by 10 points. But that's just another way of saying that Obama's campaign is flush and Clinton's is strapped for cash. And anyway, as long as we're being arithmetic, Clinton did not win Pennsylvania by the much-fetishized target margin of 10 points. She won it by 9.2 points, which rounds down to nine, not up to 10. Hillary's weirdest metric is that, if you count the primaries in Michigan (where Hillary was the only more primary votes than any previous Democratic nominee. So what? The Democratic National Committee refuses to seat the delegates from these states because they didn't follow party rules (a position Clinton had no problem accepting back when she had much more clout to change it; see "Fair-Weather Wolverine" by S.V. Dáte).

Haha. He forgot the claim by some of her henchmen that Clinton's states held "more electoral college votes." I loved that one. Anyway, after about ten minutes of brief depression yesterday, I started feeling good again. Do not allow cable talking heads--whose very livliehoods depend on drama--to fool you. This race has been over since Super Tuesday. When Obama didn't fall, Clinton had no plan. She's won the big states on sheer demographics, whereas Obama has won on demographics and on organization. My point is that she's knocked-out on her feet. There is no amount of spin that can summon more voters or more delegates. This thing is a wrap folks. And has been so, for months now.