Since the strategy
Since the strategy of the Clinton campaign and certainly the hope of her supporters was to share the news spotlight and headlines with the winner of the Republican side and therefore regain momentum, I was extremely worried that she’d pull off such a stunt really well. I’ve seen the Clintons pull off a similar stunt in 1992 when they lost the New Hampshire primaries by 10 percentage points but they declared victory and grabbed all the headlines. However, after an analysis of all the news coverage, including television, print and online last night and this morning of the Florida primaries, it appears her attempts were a dismal failure.
At best, there was coverage of the Democratic results and her "victory" speech, which was usually qualified as "no candidates campaigned in FL" or "not worth any delegates" or just a "beauty contest." There were numerous comments questioning her motives and ridiculing her decision to break her pledge. Whatever positive coverage she received was probably offset by almost as much negative coverage. Clearly all the talk (about 95% of it) last night was about McCain’s win. A couple of the networks, however, granted her an interview.
When I checked a variety of major news websites such as Reuters, AP, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, and even sites such as the Huffington Post and Drudgereport, all the large print pretty much read: "McCain Wins Florida" or something to that affect. There was either no mention or scant of mention of Hillary in barely readable print at the corners. After viewing the local TV news coverage this morning, there again was mention of McCain but very little of Hillary. Again, if she was mentioned, it was with the usual qualifiers.
My analysis of the national and local print papers: NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Daily News, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland News Tribune, and the Contra Costa Times this morning show similar patterns: McCain in large letters and NO mention or scant mention of Hillary. My brother in Seattle confirmed that the news coverage there was ALL McCain as well and no mention of Hillary.
All in all, last night seems like it can be summed up as another desperate attempt by the Clinton campaign that went up in smoke.