It's the math, stupid

By Creature

Obviously today is the big day. With Texas and Ohio in the balance there is a slight possibility that the race may come to an end. Unfortunately, this possibility will only happen if Obama can pull off big victories in Texas and Ohio; this even though it's actually Hillary who needs the big victories, in both states, to mathematically keep her hopes alive (and, even then, the nomination is still a long shot). So, while the math has certainly deserted Hillary, it disturbs me that media narrative has not.

For all the negative Clinton-bias talk of late, any quick survey of the news shows it has been anything but. It's really quite amazing how the mainstream press have been guilted into mathematical blindness (Joe Scarborough, for example, after early Obama fawning has been particularly egregious with the swallowing and the regurgitating of Mark Penn's spin of late). As Yglesias pointed out yesterday, and as Jon Stewart tried to question Hillary about last night (she ducked the question), if Clinton and Obama switched roles the pressure on him to call it quits before today would have been tremendous. He would have been given the Mike Huckabee treatment, no doubt.

So, while I don't mind the grilling Obama is getting over his NAFTA-Canada flap (which I believe is a coordinated conservative/Hillary effort to trip up Obama), or even the grilling he's getting over Rezko (though it does bother me that such grilling makes the likes of Taylor Marsh happy), it's the ignoring of the mathematical reality that has me steamed. Without double-digit margins tonight Hillary cannot win (without stealing it, that is). This is the story going forward. Anything else is just corporate favoritism for their anointed daughter and the power she, and her husband, still wield behind the scenes. Sorry, despite the media-Obama fawning, he's still the underdog here and Hillary's name has served her well.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)