The Flocked Up Campaign Press Gaggle

[emilyg]

Walter Brasch

Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek called Barack Obama’s surge to the Democratic nomination “inevitable.” It also called for Hillary Clinton to “start campaign for Sen. majority leader.” Newsweek was one of only dozens of national media that made that “analysis.” But the voters had their own ideas.

Sen. Clinton took Ohio by a wide margin, squeaked into a victory in Texas, and even won Rhode Island, stopping Obama’s victory streak in the smaller delegate-light states. Obama still needs at least 500 more delegate votes to assure the nomination. And that’s not inevitable.

Reporters and columnists, pundits, pollsters, and blowhards, just can’t seem to get it right. They want to be erudite and prescient. But, they got it horribly wrong in New Hampshire, and then tried to scramble by saying that Sen. Clinton had a “surprising” win. It was only surprising to the press that confidently predicted an Obama win.

The media have also been weak in figuring out the effect of a heavy Republican cross-over vote that tended to favor Obama and skew results in Wisconsin, Texas, and other states that allow Republicans to temporarily become Democrats.

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