(A diary from yesterday that takes a look at The Math and delegates, with slight editing in the intro. SusanG)
The issue here is that the way this is discussed in the media narrative does not fully educate the audience how daunting the math is for Hillary Clinton. Chuck Todd is clearly the best at articulating all of this, and I am convinced he understands these numbers in detail. However, even Todd has not been terribly aggressive in stressing the difference between needing 62% or 65% of the remaining delegates and the voting margins required to make that happen.
Jonathan Alter used Slate's delegate calculator to try and juke the numbers to get Clinton closer. But he is missing the blowout principle, where it's unclear how the numbers move very little until the #s push past certain blowout thresholds.
Just for kicks, here is Howard Fineman on the night of the Potomac Primary talking about how Clinton has to be within 30 pledged delegates of someone he calls "Bark" Obama (h/t TPM).
