Tuesday’s primary marked the beginning of the end for some Republican candidates and the clearest indication yet that the Democrats will have to wait for some time to inaugurate their candidate. I stuck with CNN for all my coverage since they’re the only major network that broadcasts on the internet (no TV for me). CNN’s coverage of the election was consistent with what you’d expect based on their history.

For the Republicans, the network anchors appeared shocked when Mike Huckabee won delegates in Southern States even though his personality and policies align closely in that region. It’s disappointing that the media declared a two man race before the South had spoken. Super Tuesday showed a few conclusions on this issue – it’s a three man race with John McCain comfortably in control while Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney will cancel each other out. Romney can afford to put up his own cash to stay in so I wouldn’t expect him to drop out. Huckabee may have to drop out if he can’t raise funds to advertise in States that aren’t familiar with him if he wants to be competitive. I see McCain’s big challenge as an all-out effort to halt the attack from the conservative pundits like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.

As for the Democrats, CNN reported on Obama’s losses in California and Massachusetts as critical, but were they really losses? A few weeks ago, he had little chance of winning those primaries so a close contest could easily be seen as a victory when one considers the actual rules of the delegate distribution for the Democrats. The delegate breakdown for Democrats is not winner-take-all but is instead proportional depending on the State. In some States, it’s possible to lose the popular vote, but win more delegates. This happened in New Hampshire in Obama’s favor and Alabama in Clinton’s favor. Yet the media portrays the popular vote as the pivotal factor. This simplistic view plays well for a television audience since it provides a clear and easy to see winner. However, the delegate breakdown was nearly equal on Super Tuesday for the Democrats. Ask any pundit a few weeks ago and they would claim such a result would be clear victory for Obama. Again, the media has mostly awarded Clinton a victory. Why? The expression says follow the money and in television, money is in ratings. One can imagine nothing better for ratings than a heated political contest that goes right down to the convention. That motivation is a possible explanation why they jumped on the Obama bandwagon a few months back when Clinton was the clear leader and why they may abandon him now.