Don Surber proves himself wrong

UPDATE 2:10 p.m.: "John and I will have a respectful debate," Hillary says.

UPDATE 2 p.m.: Because Mitt Romney isn't running attack ads, some people see this as a signal he doesn't really want to win. Allah sees it otherwise, and reinforces my point (citing Karl at Protein Wisdom):

Karl reminds us that 45% of the delegates will still be in play after Tuesday, so McCain ain’t clinching anything this week.

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I greatly appreciate the effort Don Surber has devoted to crunching the numbers on the Super Tuesday primaries, in an attempt to depict John McCain's nomination as a lead-pipe cinch: "The numbers crunch McCain’s way for a final decision on Tuesday." (Via Memeorandum.)

But while the title of his post is "It's over," what Surber has actually shown is that it's not over. Even according to his own math, Don has demonstrated, with 1,192 delegates needed to win, the current polls indicate an outcome Tuesday that will leave the delegate count at McCain 652, Romney 311.

This has been what I've been trying to say all along: Despite his post-Florida momentum, McCain is nowhere near locking up the nomination.

The MSM (and McCain's Republican supporters) are trying to paint McCain's nomination as a fait accompli in order to (a) hurt Romney's fundraising; (b) discourage his supporters; (c) cause a "bandwagon effect" in McCain's favor; and (d) prevent Romney from getting anything but more discouraging press coverage.

It won't work, because a lie cannot defeat the facts, and a free people cannot be permanently deceived. When Wednesday morning comes, and Romney is still a viable candidate, a lot of Republicans will recognize that they've been the target of a dishonest propaganda campaign, and there will be a monster backlash against McCain.

Don, I love you, man, but this fight may very well go all the way to Minnesota.

P.S.: Don't miss Daily Pundit's analysis of the GOP race.