Dark Side of the Campaign

Answer: thousands.

The media continue to discount Hillary's West Virginia blowout. Roger Simon puts it this way:

"SHE WON THE WEST VIRGINIA PRIMARY BY A KAZILLION PERCENTAGE POINTS TUESDAY NIGHT, AND THAT, SHE SAYS, HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING!

"Except the press doesn't think so. The press is unimpressed. This may be the first time in election history in which the press has withdrawn from a race before the candidate."

After failing to crack 30 percent in WVa, Obama needs a different game plan, says National Review's Byron York:

"Her landslide 67-26 victory over Obama in West Virginia -- she won by 147,410 votes -- won't change that situation. The oft-repeated fact that no Democrat since 1916 has won the White House without winning West Virginia won't change it, either. But together, those two facts show just how far Democrats have ventured into uncharted territory this year. If Obama is to win the White House, he'll have to do it in a brand-new way, winning states that Democrats haven't won lately with diminished support in states that have been important to Democratic victories in the past. Clinton's campaign reminds Democrats of that, and it makes some of them nervous."

At Mother Jones, David Corn asks: Why should we care about West Virginia, anyway?

"It's not unusual for a primary not to matter. In previous elections, candidates often skipped territory not deemed favorable to them. And late states often have had little impact. This year shows that it's hard to know in advance which states and which period will be crucial. Who'd thought that those medium-sized, in-the-middle-of-the-calendar states would be so important? But that was where and when Obama gathered momentum and vacuumed up a bunch of delegates.

"So nothing against West Virginians, but, like voters in late states of previous contests, they don't have much of a say in who will be the Democratic nominee. And neither will Kentuckians, who next week are likely to tilt toward Clinton, while Oregonians near-coronate Obama. The Democratic primary, as red-hot as any recent primary contest, is petering out. Seemingly with a whimper, rather than a bang. Which is a good thing. Clinton at the moment seems to be coasting, not calculating how best to destroy Obama."

The big Beltway buzz is over a Democrat winning a special House election in Mississippi in a GOP stronghold that President Bush easily carried in 2004. Conservative bloggers aren't trying to spin it away. Here's Power Line's Paul Mirengoff:

"My takeaway is that the Republican brand is in such bad shape that the Dems can win virtually anywhere if they nominate a candidate whose position on key issues is, or can be made to seem, close to that of the Republican.

"Fortunately, the Democrats will not nominate such a candidate for president. And the Republican nominee, whether we feel comfortable about it or not, isn't necessarily seen as intimately associated with the Republican brand. Even so, I think that Republican nominee is running uphill."

On the other hand, the GOP losers in these special elections kept trying to tie their opponents to the very same Barack Obama.

Finally, Obama apologizes for calling a Detroit reporter "sweetie." Hey, it beats what some politicians call the press.