At the eleventh hour, Hillary Clinton has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. This from CNN:

"[Hillary Clinton] said again Monday that no Democratic candidate since 1916 has gone on to win the White House without first winning West Virginia."

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Well, there you have it folks. Reason #37 why Clinton should just be given the nomination.

Obama 08! Clinton 08!

"Hillary is within striking distance of winning the popular vote nationwide -- a key part of our plan to win the nomination," campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a letter to supporters Sunday.

From your link above.

Guy always forgets something when he writes his people. Forgot to see "key part of our plan this week."

I love the Hillary Deathwatch. Loved it when you guys first debuted it and I love it even more. It shows in a very visual fashion what some people just don't seem to get: This nomination process is a game, with a set of rules and a means of attaining points. Hillary lost in the game. There's two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, she's down 15 and she's just nailed a 3 while getting fouled. Even if she nails the freethrow, she's still down 11.
Do Hillary supporters really believe the refs should give her the victory because she scored more in the last part of the fourth quarter than Obama did. Even if Obama outscored her in the first, second and third quarters?
Seriously. Get a grip. It's over. Lick your wounds. Get over the fact that 2009 will not be the inauguration of the first female president and vote for your interests, as in Obama.

Have you no sense of sarcasm, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of sarcasm?

(With apologies to Joseph Welch.)

Obama 08!

The "jaws of defeat?" are you referring to that shark that keeps swimming around in the graphic?

There's two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, she's down 15 and she's just nailed a 3 while getting fouled. Even if she nails the freethrow, she's still down 11.

I'm curious if you actually calculated that out.

After NC and IN I took the average points scored in an NBA game and worked it out for pledged delegates only. Hillary is down by something like 10 points with 3 minutes and 16 seconds to go.

The sea change in the superdelegate count would push up the score and (I think) take time off the clock if you added them into my mix.

Still, your numbers are remarkably close to what I came up with. Interesting, in a trivial sort of way. And I'm not even a basketball fan.

The problem with your little computation is that the nature of the points being scored is completely different. It's quite possible for a basketball team to run off 10 unanswered points. In a proportional system, it is not possible for Clinton to run off 170 unanswered delegates.

You VASTLY underestimate the difficulty of the math for Clinton.

maroci:

The problem with your little computation is that the nature of the points being scored is completely different. It's quite possible for a basketball team to run off 10 unanswered points. In a proportional system, it is not possible for Clinton to run off 170 unanswered delegates.

You VASTLY underestimate the difficulty of the math for Clinton.

Oh, of course, you're quite right. And a week or so ago when I initially posted this mildly amusing calculation somewhere else around here, I pointed out something very much to that effect.

Thanks for pointing it out here.