The Popular-Vote Argument

The Clintonistas will continue making the specious argument that she has won the popular primary vote, which they claim is more significant than Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) predominant delegate vote, until the media stops spreading it.

The Florida-Michigan debate aside, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has not won the popular vote. She does not calculate, in her popular-vote tally, any number of popular votes from the many caucus states she lost. How can one ignore this significant group (more states than the two — Florida and Michigan — in dispute) of voters? Factor them in with any rational computation, and Sen. Obama wins the popular vote as well as the delegate vote.

That popular-vote argument should be put to rest. It is aimed at a naïve general public that may believe what a former president says or the media repeats. The Democratic National Committee is too sophisticated to be misled by it. The media should stop purveying this deceptive message without warning its audience of its fundamental erroneousness.