Why do The Enablers believe that the primary election has been close?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

Yeah, she got the media (even the so-called "libruls" in the media) believing that mess.

Let's review once more, shall we:

Number of Contests Won:

O: 33 H: 19


Number of Pledged Delegates Won:

O: 2,086.5 H: 1919.5


Number of Super Delegates Won:

O: 346 H: 296

Yeah, it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CLOSE!!!!

[busymom]

1. Actually...

That is close.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. How? Explain??? And use regular math, not Hillary Math!

[brooklynite]

5. Pledged delegate ratio is 52/48

State counts are irrelevant since states have different sizes and delegates are generally allocated proportionally.

[The Magistrate]

8. The Math Is Fairly Clear, Ma'am

The total in pledged delegates looks to be 4,005. The gap in this category is about 170, or less than five percent of the total. That is pretty close in a nationwide race. The popular vote reflects this, as however it is calculated, there is no difference greater than two or three percent in favor of either candidate. Number of primary or caucus contests is meaningless, and these all represent greatly differing numbers of voters, and it is possible to win many small contests that even all together lack the weight of several large ones.

[Oregone]

3. Numerically (p. delegates) it is pretty close relative to past elections from what I understand

But being that she is 3+ months into whats become a losing battle, everyone but her has known the campaign has been pointlessly carrying on but dead in the water for some time. I think it is numerically close, but there is a lot that the numbers do not necessarily tell. Obama won the delegate count, the most states, the popular vote, the alpha count (Add up the number of letters of all states he won), the ascii vote (add up the ascii values of the letters of the states he won), the social security vote (add up the SS number of all his family members), the Zodiac vote, the Zoroastrian count, the Talmudic primary count, the Greek Pythagorean Cultic theorem vote, the foreign countries polling count, the brain cells of Tim Russert favoring him count, the leaked sex video count, etc.

Yes, she did get the popular vote of angry bitter women who will vote for her (or McCain if all else fail), but I think Obama leads the majority of the other valid metrics out there.

[EFerrari]

4. Because that's the only way to keep pumping money into

ad buys and other assorted ways the media profits off of our elections. If they'd called it for Obama sooner, it would have cost them big.

[cbayer]

6. Can you find one that has been closer?

52% to 48% of pledged delegates won in the primary season. I can't recall ever seeing a primary this close in either party.

[flowomo]

7. looks pretty close to me....

Obama wins clearly, but it was hardly a runaway.

[rug]

9. It was close enough that one less mistake by her or one more by him change the outcome.

[cloudythescribbler]

10. When was the LAST time the competition for the Dem nomination was THIS close? hmmm?

& I'm an ardent longtime Obama supporter.

What's the point of all this superfluous nose-rubbing?

[Donkey_Punch_Dubya]

11. For comparison

1976, Carter had 2239 delegates, Udall 330 and Brown 301.

1980, Carter had 2124 delegates, Kennedy had 1151 (and this went to the convention).

1984, Mondale had 2191 delegates, Hart had 1200 and Jackson 485 (although Hart won 27 states to Mondale's 19).

1988, Dukakis had 2687 and Jackson 1218.

1992, Clinton had 3372, Brown 596 and Tsongas 289.

2000, Gore had 3432, and Bradley 414 (and Gore won all 50 states and DC).

2004, Kerry had the clinching 2162 delegates on March 11th, and the convention votes were 4253 for Kerry and 43 for Kucinich (I guess Edwards and Clarke released their delegates to vote for Kerry, but Kerry won 46 states to 2 for edwards and 1 for Dean and Clark, plus 61% of the popular vote to 20% for 2nd place.

So this year is by far the closest primary in many years. I think it's intellectually dishonest when a few people have wondered why all the candidates conceded in February or March in previous years but Hillary stays in it. In all other years, the race was a blowout and the winner was apparent after 5 or 10 contests.

I'm not a Hillary supporter, but there isn't much point in denying this was a close race. Even with 100% of today's total pledged delegates and every possible superdelegate left endorsing him, it's 3 times closer than the next closest race in 35 years. It's like saying the 2000 GE was not close because Bush won more states, counties, land area and electoral votes. That was the closest election in more than 100 years by any reasonable measure. Just like this was a close primary by any reasonable measure.

That doesn't take anything away from Obama, there were two candidates with a real chance to win after 5 or 10 contests, and it wasn't effectively decided until 40 states voted (the day Texas and Ohio voted).