Clinton wins ... finally

By Jennifer J. Foster

At 12 minutes past midnight, CNN called Indiana for Hillary Clinton.

Votes are still being counted (right, Rudy Clay?), but it looks as though Clinton will squeak out a two-point win in the Hoosier State. But it won’t help her much in the overall scheme of things: Because of the proportional breakdown of delegates and the close nature of the race, Clinton will pick up only a handful of delegates on Barack Obama—and even that amount is wiped out by the delegates he wins in North Carolina, thanks to his 14-point win there.

It’s 12:18 a.m. ... only six days, six hours and 42 minutes until polls open in West Virginia ...

Rudy Clay explains

By Jennifer J. Foster

According to Gary, Ind., Mayor Rudy Clay, results from his area are so late in coming because of the backlog of 11,000-plus early votes that were cast ahead of Tuesday’s primaries.

John King and Anderson Cooper each tried several times to get Clay to explain why Lake County was so far behind Marion County, Indiana’s most populous county, in reporting partial returns. Clay responded that they didn’t want to “disenfranchise anyone” by not including their votes in the tally. He apparently didn’t understand or just ignored King’s assertion that no one is disenfranchised in the reporting of partial returns; it is simply noted that the returns are incomplete, and they are updated as more results come in.

Clay’s explanation was nearly incomprehensible, and the part of it that was not was simply not believeable.

Clay is an Obama supporter, and his city is a stronghold for the Illinois senator. If Obama ekes out a win in the Hoosier state on the strength of the Gary returns, it will be the political equivalent of Mark Furhman “finding” the bloody glove in O.J. Simpson’s home: Although it was meant to make airtight the case against Simpson, it was what probably cost prosecutors the conviction in the end. 

The Clinton campaign may be sensing blood in the water. Hammond mayor and Clinton supporter Tom McDermott appears to have read some talking points: “The appearance of impropriety is high in this case, and it’s unfortunate ... it’s frustrating for me, and it makes it look like something corrupt may be happening ... It looks improper.“

Blitzer asks whether there is a history of political “hanky-panky” in the area; Clay angrily rejects the implication.

Tom McDermott: America’s Pundit

By Jennifer J. Foster

As the political nation waits for election results from Indiana, who knew that Tom McDermott would be the go-to pundit of election night?

McDermott, mayor of Hammond, Ind., and a Clinton supporter, just spent two minutes ticking off his recollection of machine vote tallies from cities in northern and central Lake County, which—STILL—hasn’t reported its returns.

You couldn’t see them, but the pundits at CNN’s desk were no doubt scribbling and scrawling his every word: Maryville ... Hammond ... Crown Point ... and the numbers as he remembered them.

He’s delivering the news on which the entire political waits, and he’s doing it in fits and starts as it comes to him.

Tom McDermott: Mayor by day, America’s most powerful pundit by night.

If political success is all about name ID, McDermott has a bright career ahead: He’s getting the kind of “earned media”—“earned” meaning “free”—that would break most campaigns.

What is going on in Lake County?????

By Jennifer J. Foster

Hammond, Ind., Mayor Tom McDermott, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, tells CNN that he and other officials in neighboring cities counted and turning in their votes to Lake County elections officials shortly after polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Clinton won Hammond by 600-plus votes, McDermott said, and at least a handful of other cities and townships in the county.

It’s 11:07 p.m., and the only results from Lake County are about 28,000 votes from the City of Gary, where Obama beat Clinton three to one.

John King asks why Lake County officials would open themselves up to criticism—likely unfounded criticism—by not releasing election returns as they come in.

McDermott said he didn’t know what was going on.

Neither do we!

‘The Rain Man of politics’

By Jennifer J. Foster

Anderson Cooper asked John King how he knows so much about all the varied counties in all the states across the country.

King said that one of the benefits of having done this for 20 years is that he has been to many of these places “across this great country.“ In addition, he said, he knows people like Cooper will ask questions like that, so he does a little homework before Election Night, King said.

“You’re like the Rain Man of politics,“ Cooper said.

... In a good way.