A two-person political race should be as close to a zero-sum game as we can imagine in practice. Apparently, this is not the case for the Democratic side of Super Tuesday.
Depending on whether you count the national popular vote, number of states won, yesterday’s pledged delegates, cumulative pledged delegates, or include current inclinations of “super-delegates” (the stodgy, voter-demeaning, party apparatchiks), everyone can win:
Obama Claims 9-Delegate Win
[The Nation]
Clinton Edges Obama
[Arizona Daily Star]
Obama claims lead in delegate count
[Boston Herald]
Clinton leads delegate count
[Associated Press]
Obama, Clinton neck and neck
[Chicago Sun Times]
Clinton Takes Lead
[Pensacola News Journal]
Superdelegates To Clinton’s Rescue?
[CBS News]
Where can one turn for answers? Who can explain how Obama both won and lost Nevada? Certainly the Democratic National Committee will provide the requisite analysis and definitive results!
No such luck. They are too busy watching another race:
Not even a mention of the democratic race? Really?
“Don’t believe that winning is really everything. It’s more important to stand for something. If you don’t stand for something, what do you win?”
Lane Kirkland
Lane Kirkland, sixteen-year head of the AFL-CIO, was sometimes critical of the Democratic party. I wonder what he would think now.