Just lightening things up here a little. No real tin foil hat, but I have noticed something intriguing. Other political junkies might be familiar with CNN's Political Market. It's a stock market game where you start with imaginary sum of money, $5,000 in this case, and you can buy shares of stocks in predictions for the primary races. It's geeky, but it's a decent pass time.
I started wondering about CNN's coverage and it's seeming bias toward Clinton on Tuesday afternoon when their website kept showing Clinton winning even though Obama was on a tremendous roll. I'd heard their coverage on television and was struck that I couldn't reconcile their version of reality with what I was seeing on the internet with results in state after state going for Obama. As a new Obama supporter, I would get irritated whenever I was watching the mainstream media and I would have to go back to the internet to get the real results. I assumed it was just my own peculiar feelings, and not a real instance of pandering. Well, now I'm starting to wonder.
Back to the CNN Political Market. I'd joined the game and bought 50 shares of "Who will win the most Democratic Primaries on Super Tuesday?" for Obama. The way the game works is that the "price" is set on the open market based on how many shares are being traded at what price, so I bought 50 shares at $46.30 which means that the people playing had set the odds that Obama would come away with a majority of states at 46.3%. Seemed low to me and I bought $2,315.47 worth of Obama. If he won the price would be set to 100% or $100 a share and I would make out like a bandit.
Well, Obama won 13 states. I was amazed and pleased. I was also annoyed with my own state going for Clinton. I think I know what caused that, but that's for a different diary. So today I log onto the CNN Political Market site expecting to see a much improved imaginary cash flow position. Nope. For some strange reason CNN closed out the position in favor of Clinton. Here's a pic of the portfolio entry:
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I emailed CNN Political Market to get an explanation, but nothing so far. Is CNN so invested in Clinton winning the nomination that they would cheat on this geeky game? Is it an honest mistake? What's the deal here?
* UPDATE
THANKS TO KEENEKARL FOR ENLIGHTENING ME. APPARENTLY CNN'S POLITICAL MARKET WAS COUNTING ONLY PRIMARIES AND NOT CAUCUSES. SO WHILE OBAMA WON THE MOST STATES ON SUPER TUESDAY, HE DID NOT WIN THE MAJORITY OF THE PRIMARIES. CLINTON GOT 8 AND OBAMA GOT 7. DAMN, I LOST LIKE 5K! OH WELL, AT LEAST OBAMA WON THE MAJORITY OF THE STATES ON FEB. 5TH.