Even while West Virginians were going to the polls yesterday, it was clear that the media wasn't going to give Hillary Clinton a "wedge" that would allow her to simultaneously overturn the laws of mathematics and of the Democratic Primary process. It was obvious that this campaign had crossed another threshold: the Clinton campaign had lost control of the press narrative - and they stood no chance of gaining it back.
The Associated Press kicked off the festivities early in the day with their article, "Clinton seeks largely symbolic win in W. Va".
Hillary Rodham Clinton reached out for a largely symbolic victory in the West Virginia primary Tuesday over Barack Obama, front-runner in a historic Democratic presidential race nearing an end. Obama conceded defeat in advance in the state, looking ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the campaign against John McCain.
The NY Post went even further in its pre-election post-mortem, finding hints in Clinton's rhetoric that she planned to drop out at the top of June:
"Thank you for caring so much about our country," Clinton said in a video sent yesterday to supporters. "And now it's on to West Virginia and Kentucky and Oregon, and we'll stay in touch."
Not mentioned in her apparent video swan song are the final three primaries, in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota, to be held after next week - leading to speculation that she might pull the plug on her campaign after what are expected to be strong wins in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Camp Clinton also suffered a blow when Clinton backer James Carville - in one of his many endearing fits of intellectual honesty - declared the contest essentially over. (P.S. to Barack: Carville has an undated check for you in the amount of $4,600. Pick up at your convenience.)
The good folks at CNN weren't having any of this "Game Over" folderol. As WVa was called for Clinton, their front page call-out blared, in a deceptively "objective" passive construction:
A big win for Clinton in the state today could raise doubts about Obama's electability.
Raise doubts among...whom, precisely? Voters? Obama still leads in the popular vote count. Superdelegates, perhaps? Not if Tuesday was any indication. It feels as though remaining superdelegates genuflected to Hillary's impending win by not making any announcements past noontime on Tuesday. But that didn't stop four uncommitted supers from coming out for Obama in the early morning hours. If you factor in superdelegate pledges in the past week, it's obvious that Clinton has made zero progress; her win in West Virginia shifted Obama's delegate gains in seven days from + 27 to +17.
Did the MSM pick up on that tiny, irrelevant fact? Oh my, yes. Unlike CNN, others weren't quite so upbeat about Obama's impending electoral doom. WaPo:
N.Y. senator claims an easy victory in state's presidential primary, a win that increases the likelihood of her continued candidacy but does little to alter her position as a decided underdog in the race for the Democratic nomination.
NYTimes:
With Mr. Obama still solidly ahead of Mrs. Clinton in the delegate fight, the West Virginia results are unlikely to adversely affect Mr. Obama’s chances of winning the nomination.
AFP:
Hillary Clinton cruised to an easy win over Barack Obama in West Virginia's primary Tuesday, but her morale-boosting night will not shake her foe's mathematical stranglehold on the Democratic White House race.
(FWIW, "mathematical stranglehold" is my new favorite phrase.)
The always excellent McClatchey:
Just 28 delegates were at stake in West Virginia, a fraction that's unlikely to have much impact on a race that's shifting rapidly to Obama since he won last week's showdown in North Carolina and came within striking distance of taking Indiana away from Clinton.
Obama now leads in every category: state contests, delegates elected in primaries, superdelegates who get convention votes because of their status as elected or party officials, and the nationwide popular vote.
Like a few other orgs, McClatchey picked up on "conciliatory" langauge in Clinton's victory speech that indicate a softening of rhetoric.
And the AP updated its own story to state that the results "scarcely slow[ed] his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination."
Oddly, the headlines at Talking Points Memo and the posts of Eric Kleefeld on TPM Election Central seemed to be one of the only places where one could find Clinton talking points regurgitated:
As was widely predicted in polls, Clinton takes the state. Obama conceded West Virginia, but Hillary's campaign argues that he shouldn't be able to write off the loss given her decisive margin.
The pro-Obama readership was having none of it, ripping Eric Kleefeld apart for a somewhat wistful post about how the Clinton camp would use this victory to turn the narrative around.
By contrast, Josh Marshall remained fascinated by the graceless losing of the Hillraisers, and by Terry McAuliffe's descent into madness. Indeed, watching Democratic luminaries stretch their rhetoric beyond the bounds of reason to shift the narrative toward Clinton has been the saddest part of this spectacle. Josh rounded out his commentary with a thoughtful post demonstrating that Clinton did as well in WVa as she did in the Appalachian-esque territories of PA and OH.
One narrative that's failed to make it into any press accounts I've seen is that Clinton's win in West Virginia, while impressive, doesn't outmatch many of the lopsided victories that Obama has racked up. Diarist kubla000 has documented this talking point for your pontificating pleasure.
Final Analysis: Hillary Clinton lost the post-West Virginia news cycle before the polls closed. While Clinton's own supporters are determined to fight fiercely, the results changed nothing - and people know it. I won't be surprised to see the Post's prediction come true: that after her last major expected victory (Kentucky), Clinton will at the very least suspend her campaign, and quietly back away from Obama's spotlight.