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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Media Coverage of GOP Contest

TDS readers might be interested in my virtual debate with Walter Shapiro on media coverage of the GOP presidential nominating race. Shapiro, arguing that the chattering classes were prematurely calling the race for Romney, wrote here. I responded here.
And Jonathan Bernstein of WaPo’s Post-Partisan summed it up here:

Kilgore is exactly right, on two counts. The first is the state of the contest. Looking at delegates isn’t enough. Shapiro writes that nothing changed after Illinois, but that’s not really true. For one thing, while Romney was the favorite in that primary, there’s still a big difference in that he actually did sweep that state and reap a large delegate bounty (indeed, Shapiro seems to be ignoring that Romney also won big in Puerto Rice just before Illinois, which further nailed down his large delegate lead). Each time the front-runner wins, even when he’s favored, it makes it that much less likely he can be overcome. Also changed since Illinois, as Kilgore notes, are key endorsements heading Romney’s way. Those hurt Santorum severely; he desperately needed resources to remain competitive, and it’s increasingly clear he’s not going to generate any.

Follow all the links and judge for yourself.

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