Huh?

Recently, a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton, Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) suggested a novel, new method of guaging success in the primaries--tally up the electoral votes in states won!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/us/politics/24campaign.html?fta=y

Is there anyone reading this who can explain to me the tortured logic that would lead people to believe that winning electoral votes in a primary (where they make no difference at all) translates to winning electoral votes in the general election? Obviously the candidate who wins the primary goes on to win the general election. In fact, all twenty-four Democratic and Republican primary winners went on to take the white house, excepting only the twelve who lost. So clearly, primary performance is an indicator of general election performance.

Take a state like Texas, for example. Clinton won (narrowly) in the popular vote in that state's primary election on March 5. So, obviously, she will win Texas in the general election, right?

Frankly, no. Stephen Colbert could not have been more accurate when he said that the winner of the Texas Democratic primary would win Texas "unless there's a Republican candidate." I'm sorry, but no Democrat is going to take Texas in the general election--so why is being able to win it in a primary such a big thing?

Primary performance is no indicator whatsoever of how a candidate will perform in the general election. For one thing, it represents only the wishes of people who are registered members of the party itself (except for some states that hold open primaries, in which one need only be a registered voter). For another, it doesn't take into account a candidate's appeal to moderates or the other party--something that Hillary is sorely lacking.

The only reasonable explanation for why she wants to look at the primary victories as if they were the electoral college is that she's getting desperate to appear the frontrunner, when she trails Obama in just about every other category--including delegates, which is the only one that counts.

So, Senator Clinton, stop whining because the Democrats choose Barack Obama over you. I know it's hard for you to accept that, but that is just how politics works. Stop trying to show that you won in the electoral vote so far, because it only highlights that you've come up short where it really matters--the delegates.