After surveying the news coverage tonight, I have a brief comment. Overall, it’s been very poor. I can’t single out any particular personality as the culprit. And I think both Jeff Greenfield of CBS and John King of CNN have been very good.
The problem here is that none of the current generation of journalists, even the older ones, have any experience with old-fashioned delegate fights. Tonight is a contest that, especially on the Democratic side, will not be conclusive. Given those proportional rules, we really won’t know the real results until tomorrow. Other than perhaps influencing fundraising, the results don’t translate into the traditional “momentum” that has governed the way reporters of my generation have covered campaigns. Even to talk about winning a particular state is a misnomer. The important question is how many delegates a given candidate won.
As I’ve said previously, like 2000, this election will rewrite the rules of how we look at campaigns.