John Edwards’ endorsement of Barack Obama matters because the media is treating it like it does. Twenty-four hours after Hillary Clinton celebrated a 41-point landslide victory in West Virginia, the press now has fresh reason to speculate about a final death blow to her campaign, creating a narrative that could unleash the decisive superdelegate flood the Obama campaign has been waiting for.

But, really, is this huge—or even surprising—news? Obama was going to win the nomination with or without Edwards’ backing.  read more »

“It is a fact,” Clinton said in her victory speech, “that no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia.”

It’s a line the Clinton campaign has been pressing relentlessly this past week in anticipation of her blowout victory there tonight.

And it’s true that no Democrat since Woodrow Wilson has won the presidency without West Virginia. But the exact same is true about Minnesota – a state where Obama crushed Clinton back on February 5. And Minnesota is every bit the swing state that West Virginia is. (Actually, it’s more of one: In 2004, George W. Bush won West Virginia by 13 points, while John Kerry won Minnesota by three. Plus, Minnesota is worth twice as many electoral votes – 10 – as West Virginia and its five.)

So what does Clinton’s argument really mean? Based on the states-we’ve-needed-since-1916 standard, Democrats would pick up West Virginia with Clinton, but wouldn’t Minnesota then be at risk – meaning a net loss of five electoral votes?  read more »

Hillary Clinton will win the West Virginia primary on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, perhaps rivaling her campaign-best 43-point pasting of Barack Obama in Arkansas’ Feb. 5 primary.

The state is mostly populated by voters who have formed the backbone of her large and loyal coalition this primary season, and contains scant few of those who have made up Obama’s. Moreover, Obama, in a bow to the inevitable and an effort to downplay its significance, has not exactly gone all out this past week to narrow Clinton’s wide lead.  read more »

Wow. Staten Island is farther south than parts of West Virginia.

I read that nifty little nugget in the new essay collection from Reaktion Books entitled New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg.

Another example of the enduring John McCain-Mike Huckabee alliance and its consequences for Mitt Romney: Huckabee just won the West Virginia State Republican Convention thanks to an assist from McCain.

Romney targeted West Virginia, where a vote of the 1,100 delegates at the state G.O.P. convention determines which presidential candidate will receive all 18 of West Virginia's delegates to the national convention.

More after the jump.  read more »

From the NYT Mag ARTICLE with those pics:  read more »