Obama leads national popular vote
Assuming for the sake of argument that the "national popular vote" means something in the context of a state-by-state, district-by-district fight for the nomination -- and I'm not at all sure it does, but the Hillary folks will certainly argue that it does if such an argument suits their spin -- it's interesting to note that, even if you count Florida and Michigan, and even if you ignore the caucus states that don't report popular-vote totals, Obama is winning the popular vote.
Of course, it's totally absurd to count Michigan, since Obama wasn't even on the ballot there, and both campaigns agreed in advance that it didn't count and they wouldn't compete there. Same goes for Florida, except for the ballot thing, so counting the Sunshine State is pretty suspect, too. Furthermore, the only fair way to accurately reflect the national popular-vote totals is to try and somehow estimate the votes in those caucus states, as ObamaIsWinning.com is doing; otherwise you are just completely ignoring Iowa, Nevada, Washington and Maine, all of which were (unlike FL and MI) actually contested by both candidates.
So really, Obama's legitimate lead is actually much bigger than the 9,942,375 to 9,860,138 that you get if you count FL & MI and ignore IA, NV, WA and ME. Still, he's ahead no matter how you slice it, and that counts for something. I think. Sort of.
Hil'ruh wiyul wiyun th'Intended vote.
(hat tip, James CarV'LL :)
Posted by: Joe Loy | Feb 14, 2008 12:09:39 AM
I've already said all I'm going to say on this topic. I'll simply continue to repeat from time to time.
Arrgh.
Posted by: Jay Johnson | Feb 14, 2008 12:14:47 AM
I totally agree "that counts for something. I think. Sort of."
Posted by: Condor | Feb 14, 2008 12:37:37 AM
it'll be a nice notch in the belt for winning superdelgates over.
Posted by: yea | Feb 14, 2008 11:12:07 AM