Thursday, March 06, 2008

Smoke and Mirrors

Clinton Wins Texas!!!
Clinton Wins Texas!!!


Or did she?

What many, including me, didn't know about is the "Texas Two Step", which involves Texas holding its primary and its caucus votes on the same day. If you vote in the primary you can then vote in the caucus of your district (or the other way around; it's a weird dance). So, Clinton wins the primary garnering her X number delegates, but the caucuses control delegates as well. And the caucus numbers are looking like Obama will win that majority giving him a total of four more delegates for the entire state when the primary and caucus delegates are totaled up.
So, Obama actually wins, just like Gore in Florida in 2000 (though that wasn't known until over a year later when all legal ballots were recounted as a sort of academic exercise). But the public at large will be left with a mental picture like the one at top and think that Clinton pulled off the sweep she and her husband said she had to. And the media blares out that she is on the comeback trail, because of her impressive wins in Texas and Ohio and Rhode Island (she did actually win the last two). And her husband's statement that she must win both Ohio and Texas to stay in the race are obscured in the dust raised by the stomping and backslapping of her campaign in the wake of the primary vote.
Perception is everything, is it not?