HILLARY CLINTON - PUNDITS PONDER PRIMARIES

Hillary Clinton canceled media appearances and other engagements for the day in order to assess the results of Tuesday's primary results. With Barack Obama surpassing analysts' projections in North Carolina and losing in Indiana by only a few thousand votes, TV commentators were predicting that Clinton will issue a concession statement by the end of the week. "We now know who the nominee will be," NBC commentator Tim Russert remarked Tuesday night as the final tally was coming in. The Drudge Report featured a picture of Obama captioned "The Candidate." Meanwhile, CBS was taking flak for projecting a Clinton win in Indiana at 8:00 p.m., when votes from several major Obama strongholds had yet to be counted. At 8:09, Katie Couric broke into the telecast of NCIS to announce Clinton's apparent victory. She then asked commentator Jeff Greenfield, "Does this change anything?" He replied, "It sure doesn't. We go on till June 3." Such a scenario now appears unlikely. Other networks, including the cable news channels, characterized the race as "too close to call." Even as late as 11:00 p.m., Russert was saying that the Indiana race "could go either way." It was not until after 1:00 a.m. that the networks called the state in favor of Clinton.

07/05/2008