The voters, not the press, pick the winner

According to Pew Research Center (I added emphasis):

Barack Obama may be building an insurmountable lead in the Democratic primary race, but the public is sending a strong message to journalists and pundits: It is too early to declare, as some already have, that the race is over.

Fully 72% of the public — including comparable percentages of Democrats, Republicans and independents — say that journalists should not be anointing Obama as the Democratic nominee at this stage in the race. Just 20% say that journalists should be doing this.

Opinion among Democrats about what the press should do in this regard may well reflect their view that Hillary Clinton should stay in the race. Recent surveys by Gallup and ABC News/Washington Post find that most Democrats believe that Clinton should stay in the race. In the ABC News/Washington Post survey, released May 12, 64% of Democrats, including 42% of Obama supporters, said Clinton should remain in the race.

Link from Lambert, who adds:

Not that Pew�s story will be covered. Nor will what the Pew study means be covered: That the voters totally mistrust the �fairy stories� that our famously free press tells, and for a good reason that they understand and can express: The voters get to pick the President, not the press.

But, though the voters want to pick the winner themselves, party elders may have another point of view. Turkana explains:

And that’s it. If you read the Clinton bloggers, you will find many strong and valid arguments about why this race really isn’t over. Or why it really shouldn’t be over. If this was a truly democratic process. Which it isn’t. As Big Tent Democrat has pointed out, the process wasn’t designed to be truly democratic. And the Obama bloggers have spent much of the past few months bringing the shrill in a very big way over the possibility that party insiders and superdelegates would decide the race. For Clinton, anyway. Because the party insiders and superdelegates are deciding the race. For Obama. And the shrillosphere is okay with that. Because to some people it hasn’t ever been about fairness or democracy, it’s been about their guy winning. And the party insiders and superdelegates are declaring it over. The corporate media have already declared it over. And the pale reflection of the corporate media that is the Shrillosphere of Change long ago declared it over. The arguments don’t matter. The popular vote doesn’t matter. Florida and Michigan don’t matter. Anything that might in any way call into question the validity or rectitude of the only acceptable outcome doesn’t matter. It is over.

The Post article says that among the party insiders, much healing is yet to be done. And it would help if Obama selected a Clinton loyalist as his running-mate, although it’s hard to see how the selection of a Clinton loyalist will repair the damage, unless that loyalist is Clinton herself. Which many Obama bloggers and supporters refuse even to consider. But this article was about Villagers. Beltway types. These people are friends. They see each other at restaurants. Their kids and grandkids probably attend the same schools. But from what I’ve seen in the blogs and in the Left Coast meat world, the healing will not be so easy. And the attitude of some prominent Obama supporters is not helping. Many seem to think it is the Clinton supporters who need to lead the healing process. Many seem to think they have little or no responsibility to help lead the healing process. Many seem to think they can merely write off the Clinton supporters. Many don’t understand that victory in November is far from assured.