Spin Cycle

Team Clinton has a conference call at 12:30 and Hillary -- after a strategy session with donors and backers at her DC home -- will be all over TV, so there'll be a surfeit of spin on the implications of the West Virginia win.

All the coverage this morning -- and, on TV last night -- treated the victory as impressive but symbolic, insufficient to change the math or (Clinton's best hope) the psychology of the race. Beyond that, a couple of distinct story lines.

The pro-Obama one: West Virginia and Kentucky, really all of Appalachia, are special cases, with a racial component that superdelegates aren't likely to be swayed by. The NYT said "racial considerations emerged as an unusually salient factor:"

“The number of white Democratic voters who said race had influenced their choices on Tuesday was among the highest recorded in voter surveys in the nomination fight. Two in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes. More than 8 in 10 who said it factored in their votes backed Mrs. Clinton, according to exit polls.”

The pro-Clinton spin: You can write off the states, even the region, but you can't write off the voters. The Associated Press:

“At Obama's Chicago headquarters, advisers said there was no reason to worry — West Virginia was demographically suited to Clinton and won't be part of their general election plans....But maybe the Obama camp should be more worried. The voters who went against Obama Tuesday night — white, rural, older, low-income and without college degrees — don't just live in West Virginia. They live everywhere in the country, in places Obama needs to win.”