I think Obama made the right choice by barely campaigning in West Virginia (perhaps by coincidence he did exactly what I suggested in my last diary). By devoting little attention to West Virginia he was able to essentially minimize the impact of Hillary's win.  We have yet to see the potential cost in the general election, but it definitely seemed to help him here.

However, Obama needs to treat Kentucky differently.

Rationale after the fold.

The actual vote totals from the Indiana Secretary of State are in at last.

They show that the final contest in Indiana was even narrower than the difference popularly reported.

Details after the fold.

In this primary season, I've volunteered for Obama in three different primaries (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont).

But the biggest surprise for me was the number of people who come to the polls without having made up their mind who they are voting for.  Some people literally haven't picked a candidate until minutes before they fill out the ballot. This makes them VERY susceptible to last minute influence (the recency effect in psychology). Although it varies significantly by contest, we know that as much as 9% of the electorate make their decision the day they vote (and probably 1/3 of those at the polls), and I would guess another 3% can still be swayed by poll-place experiences. In close elections, like today in Indiana, this can make a big difference.

Hence the importance of having a presence (visibility) at the poll places.

But visibility itself isn't enough, there seem, in my own unscientific analysis, to be better and worse ways of influencing people at this crucial moment.

Details after the fold.

I did a search, but I'm not completely sure if this hasn't already been diaried. Forgive me if it has:

Mainstream international magazine "The Economist" has finally begun to cover the WVWV voter disenfranchisement controversy.

Under the headline: "Clinton, Nixon; Nixon, Clinton"

The article begins with the following provocative sentence:

SIX days ahead of the North Carolina primary comes a story of real sleaze—not Jeremiah Wright-style buffoonery, but Nixon-style illegality designed to dupe and disenfranchise voters—that should surprise precisely nobody who has been following and covering this campaign.

The article goes on to point fingers at the WVWV's attempts to mislead voters. Then it continues:

Guess which Democratic candidate WVWV's founder and president, Page Gardner, has donated $6,700 to (hint: it's not Barack Obama). Guess whose election campaign Joe Goode, WVWV's executive director, worked for (hint: it was in 1992, and it was a winning campaign). Guess whose chief of staff sits on WVWV's board of directors (hint: it was the president who served between two Bushes). And guess whose campaign manager was a member of WVWV's leadership team (hint: it's Hillary Clinton).

It's clear at this point that Obama needs to do something to change the media narrative. Right now the MSM is busy playing up Hillary's campaign, making things seem close, and circling Wright like a bunch of sharks around a wounded seal. This is only going to get worse if Hillary takes Indiana and makes North Carolina close. Even though she can't win without a riot, she can continue to tarnish Obama and make things look bad. So how does Obama change the narrative?

He challenges McCain to a debate. Just him and McCain, no Hillary.

This is my first posted diary. So please be generous:

Consistently both the mainstream press and even left leaning blogs have let Camp Clinton frame the narrative, which states count, which win margins count, and all that. Folks here on Dailykos (elsewhere on Huffpost, etc.) have seen through this framing, but headlines should be reading "Despite victory in PA. Clinton cannot win." Instead the press is largely complicit in imagining a scenario in which Clinton could somehow take the election and I've heard a lot of buzz about how Clinton needs to win Indiana.

Or how she can stay in the race if she can only win Indiana.

Or how Indiana is her last hope.

But little mention of North Carolina, where Obama is the presumed favorite.