Wins vs Delegates: Turning the Race on its Head

So, after last night's win, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are the front-runners, right? Not so fast! The political wags and major news reports make it seem that way, but in actuality Huckabee is still in the lead, and Clinton holds a very small edge in the actual delegate couts. And it is being ignored so far that even though Clinton "won the state" in New Hampshire, she got the same number of delegates as Obama.

In the overall race for the nomination, Clinton leads with 187 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. She is followed by Obama with 89 delegates and Edwards with 50...

In the overall race for the nomination, Huckabee leads with 31 delegates, followed by Romney with 19 delegates and McCain with seven.

This is an important reminder to us all to take the news coverage with a grain of salt. A win is not a win is not a win. And it is the overall count of delegates that decides the nominee. And actually, it is the delegates who decide, because many are not required by law to vote for the person they promised to vote for.