No Majority Yet

The banner headline across the top of this morning’s Washington Post is

Obama Takes Delegate Majority

But that isn’t true. As the story itself (and the online headline) correctly said, Sen. Barack Obama is now “claiming a majority of the pledged delegates at stake.” His campaign is doing a great job of getting the media to declare that a “milestone” and a “major victory.” But in fact it tells us nothing we didn’t know already: Obama is ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race, and it seems impossible for Clinton to catch up. But “a majority of the pledged delegates” is virtually meaningless. There are several kinds of delegates that make up the convention, and you have to get a majority of all the delegates. “A majority of the pledged delegates” is no more relevant than Obama claiming “a majority of the delegates from coastal states” or Clinton claiming “a majority of the white delegates.” (I don’t actually know if either candidate has those majorities.) When Obama produces a list of 2025 delegates pledged to vote for him, it will be time for the Post to drag today’s headline out again.


Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Just a little campaign bombast.