Let's hope that there will be no more talk of the "popular vote". This was a sham to begin as it does not reflect the (often convoluted) nature of the primary/caucus system. The constant rehashing of this meme by the Clinton campaign only lowers the level of their discourse further (as if that were possible).

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!
~

Good Morning Eric.

Of the posts including last night's on this site, there are 3 about John McCain, 2 about Clinton and Obama, EIGHT about Hillary Clinton, and only 3 about the PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC OBAMINEE. Please do not fall into the Clinton's ongoing trap about this beinng all about them. That is why they lost in the first place and for the media to continue the charade about popular vote, or "she won the important states" like Puerto Rico and South Dakota, is as delusional as the Clintons themselves.

Last night was a historic night, and it had very little to do with Senator Clinton. A focus on Senator Obama, HIS next steps in the campaign, HIS agenda for the Democratic Party, and HIS choices for a VP candidate are more in order than further post-mortems, and coulda-shoulda-wouldas regarding Senator Clinton.

With the primaries now all over with, Hillary will only lead in the total popular vote by throwing Michigan into the mix and without allocating most of the "Uncommitted" vote there to Obama, or by disregarding the estimated vote totals from four caucus states (Iowa, Nevada, Washington state and Maine) that did not report the numbers directly.

In other words, it's a fallacy that she "won" the popular vote.

The thing that got me was last night, even after losing the nomination, she still repeated this bullshit. Which shows either: 1) just how pathological their lying is; 2) that they have completely deluded themselves and are now truly living in an alternative universe; or 3) their contempt for our intelligence knows no bounds.

I know Obama supporters are supposed to be magnanimous in victory, but it's hard to tolerate the continued spreading of bullshit even after it doesn't matter anymore.

Yes, she should have the time she needs to leave on her own terms. But she should stop the bullshit.

Yet she still keeps spouting the same lies to her supporters and the media. Hm...

With the primaries now all over with, Hillary will only lead in the total popular vote...

It is a testament to Clinton's media savvy that people still keep talking about "total popular vote" in a primary process. You correctly note many of the caveats on what would need to count or be ignored to give her the lead. But the elephant in the room here is that if anyone thought "total popular vote" had meaning before the nomination process, no states would hold caucuses, and most states would opt for open primaries to increase turnout, and therefore influence. The whole point of counting delegates is that they are allocated relative to state population (and past support for Democrats with a bonus for going later in the process), which puts different contests on an equal footing. Anything else is comparing apples and cherries.

At best we can guess what results might have been had caucus states held primaries instead, but it's safe to say that while Obama's percentage margins would decline, perhaps quite a bit, his lead totals would go up because primary turnout is much higher than caucus turnout.

The popular vote remains a myth put forward by one campaign to make it appear more competitive than it actually is. And they should be called out on this more often.

Intrade numbers this morning have Obama with a higher percentage among Democrats than McCain among Republicans; and Hillary is down there in Giuliani territory.

Good morning, everyone.

Some great reactions about Clinton's speech via Andrew Sullivan

Fallows:
You HAVE LOST the nomination. There are NO MORE primaries. And you're urging your supporters to nurse their bitter feelings on your web site, and keep selling their bikes to give you money that you'll spend on... what? The unseemliness -- and, yes, destructiveness -- of this is too obvious to mention, though perhaps not obvious enough to have occurred to you.

This is a new low.

Noam Scheiber:
So she's going to leave it to her voters to decide whether she should accept defeat after having, you know, lost? What if every losing candidate left it to their supporters to decide whether or not to accept the outcome of a race? Who would ever accept defeat?

What good could possibly come of this?
With Hillary proclaiming herself the legitimate winner, they're clearly going to say "keep going." If she actually does keep going, that's a disaster for the Democratic Party. And if she doesn't, you've just drawn a ton of attention to the fact that a large chunk of the party doesn't accept Obama as the legimiate nominee. No, worse: you've encouraged them to think that, then drawn attention to it.

Jonathan Chait:
I don't know what the fallout will be, but at minimum, I'd say that anybody on her staff who cares about their party has a moral obligation to publicly quit and endorse Obama.

Isaac Chotiner:
If Clinton wants people to believe that she cares more about the Democratic Party than her own career, she is failing badly.

Brendan Loy:
Hillary Clinton had one last chance, tonight, to exit the stage with dignity. She missed it.

JPod:
You don’t get psychodrama like this very often. It’s like political reality TV.

Clinton can only claim the popular vote by not counting voters in MI, IA, WA, NV and ME.

Clearly, she had room not to concede the nomination last night.

But Senator Clinton had no right to claim the popular vote. The media should not allow her to make that claim unchallenged.

This isn't a matter of confusion in the flow of events. Clinton's popular vote claim is deliberate and political.

Super Delegates and the public must know that Barack Obama won this hard-fought contest for delegates by every relevant measure. Pledged and Super Delegates. States. and the Popular Vote.