Hillary Claims the Lead

No kidding.  The title sounds like a joke right?  But taking a look at the NY Times this morning, I was greeted with this headline.  

Using New Math Clinton Contends She's Ahead

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Has she redefined the very laws of Nature to finally take a lead?  Sadly no.  Over the jump.

It's Florida and Michigan.  She's going to up the gamesmanship over the illegitimate primaries.  

According to the Times article, a Michigan DNC superdelegate, Joel I Ferguson,  filed a complaint with the party demanding that half the Michigan delegates be seated.  A similar effort has already been launched by Hillary surrogates in Florida.  

Ok, just more gamesmanship right?  The Times article gets weird right away however by claiming this is part of Hillary's effort to 'capitalize on her nine point victory in Pennsylvania.'  They don't explain how winning Pennsylvania entitles one to break formerly agreed upon rules but that's the Times for ya.  

Ok, we all know this is nonsense right?  Here's why I mention it this morning.

According to a count by The Associated Press, Mrs. Clinton has won just more than 15 million votes in the primaries and caucuses held to date while Mr. Obama has slightly fewer than 15 million, if Michigan and Florida are counted

It's this language.  This is being repeated all over the place.  Here we see one corrupted source citing another corrupted source, citing a corrupt campaign.  It's a powerful feedback loop of bullshit.  Anyone who has the stomach to remember the lead up to the Iraq war knows just how effective this stuff can be in terms of influencing opinion.  

And that's the problem.  Hillary can't change the laws of the Universe (don't ask her!) but she can influence opinions.  This gamesmanship in FL and MI is deepening, not healing, the wounds caused by the fracas between the state parties and the DNC.  I feel like every round of messing with FL and MI just draws more people into the bitterness and builds walls in those states between the voters and our nominee.  

The other part of the quoted language above is that when Hillary's supporters hear stuff like this they actually believe it.  People are much more likely to believe news that they want to be true.  So, even while it sounds ludicrous to most people here, there are millions who really believe this is an even race and Hillary has a right to claim the nomination.  I mean, gosh, it's written about in the New York Times and they're citing the Associated Press.  It must be legitimate.

The longer this goes on, the deeper the well of resentment we face once Obama is finally declared the nominee.  It almost seems the only point of doing it.  

Perhaps Hillary really believes she can still get the nomination.  Who knows?  What is becoming abundantly clear is that as long as she remains in the race she will get a lot of help from the media in spinning any bizarre alternate reality she chooses.  And that, in and of itself, is quite dangerous.