Republicans Suddenly Love Clinton, but The New York Times Doesn't
I haven't seen exit polling on this question, but is it possible that cross-voting Republicans pushed Hillary Clinton over the top in Texas? She won by a 3.5-point margin in the Democratic primary, where Republicans were allowed to vote, and lost by nearly four points in the caucus, where (I assume) they weren't. At our polling place in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, the Republican room was nearly deserted, and the guy handing out ballots said most of the Republicans were heading to the Democratic room to cast their votes for Clinton, whom they consider easier for John McCain to defeat. Several Republican acquaintances of mine say they followed the same strategy, but I don't know how common it was statewide.
While Republicans suddenly like Hillary, The New York Times seems to have turned against her. A pre-election news story portrayed her as flailing, going so far as to present a joke she made on The Daily Show as evidence of her desperation. This is how the passage reads in my edition of Tuesday's paper:
On Monday evening, Mrs. Clinton made a brief detour from the campaign trail to appear via satellite on "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Standig at a rally in Austin, Tex., Mrs Clinton took the first question from Mr. Stewart, who wondered why, with only one day left before the primaries on Tuesday, she was taking time to appear on his show.
"It is pretty pathetic," Mrs. Clinton replied.
As anyone who saw the interview knows and anyone familiar with The Daily Show can guess, this exchange was an example of Jon Stewart's self-deprecating shtick. He was asking why Clinton would bother to appear on his show, given how unserious and insignificant it is. To her credit, she went along with the joke. Notably, the online version of the Times story corrects the record with a strategically placed verb:
On Monday evening, Mrs. Clinton made a brief detour from the campaign trail to appear via satellite on "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Standing at a rally in Austin, Tex., she took the first question from Jon Stewart, who wondered why, with only one day left before the primaries on Tuesday, she was taking time to appear on his show.
"It is pretty pathetic," Mrs. Clinton deadpanned.