Judging by what reporters on the various news channels are currently reporting, the Obama camp is putting out the word that wins and losses don’t matter tonight, that it’s all about the math. It’s a good example of a perfectly reasonable media spin, based on fact and logic, that simply won’t work. If Clinton wins both big contests, she’ll get a huge surge, for two reasons:

1. Whatever reporters and producers think personally about Clinton and Obama, it is in their institutional interest to keep a competitive race going for a while longer. Viewership and readership will drop off markedly if Obama clinches it.

2. The headlines will be based on the vote totals, not the delegate counts, in part because the vote totals will be available more rapidly and in part because average viewers and readers are more interested in them.

Good try, Team Barry, but it won’t wash.