The media is the message

A long time ago--about two weeks, actually--the universal wisdom was that Hillary Clinton needed to win Pennsylvania by a wide double-digit margin. Indeed, a number of observers noted that she needed to win by 20 percent or close to it if she were to cut into Obama's popular-vote and delegate leads significantly. As the race tightened, however, we heard less and less of that talk. Then, when she prevailed by slightly less than 10 percent--always rounded up in the reports I saw--we were told that she had won a "decisive" victory. The MSM sounded as if there was a real horse race.

What the media will almost never acknowledge is that it has an interest in a good story--and the story of a nasty contest between Clinton and Obama is more dramatic than Obama and McCain making their way toward their respective conventions. The result is that the media presents a contest when the contest is all but over.