New Political Math

Much like the Democratic primary itself, the bizarre death-spiral of the Clinton campaign continues unabated. Clinton and her cadre of hanger-oners continue to press the "we are winning the popular vote" claim.

Oddly, Clinton makes that argument using the primary vote from Puerto Rico. Apparently nobody has told Clinton that Puerto Rico doesn't count. The island gets to vote in the primary solely because the DNC wanted to throw a bone to various U.S. protectorates and territories (there's a primary in Guam, too). However, at the end of the day, in the only election that matters - the general election in November - Puerto Ricans can't vote. Consequently, nobody cares how they voted in a non-binding and irrelevant advisory vote. Counting those votes is sort of like a basketball team counting its pre-game warm-up shots toward the final score of the actual game.

Clinton should be happy that she managed to neuter the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC (and by extension, the DNC itself) by badgering it into giving her delegates that should never have been awarded to anybody. Apparently destroying her party's ability to run its own show is not enough. Seriously, her scorched-earth policy would do Stalin proud.