Is Clinton irrelevant, or just portrayed that way?

Define relevance. Nealy all the media started reporting after Indiana’s primary that Hillary Clinton was “Toast”. Is she?

Here’s a good roundup of what some of the big ones are saying.

Sen. Hillary Clinton scored one of the biggest victories of the Democratic primary yesterday, defeating Sen. Barack Obama 67%-26% (with John Edwards, long out of the contest, pulling 7%). However, the consensus in the media this morning is that the victory means little, because Obama has already effectively sewn up the nomination.

They’re virtually all saying the same thing.

The New York Times reports in a front page story that Clinton won a “strong” victory over Obama, but with Obama “still solidly ahead of Mrs. Clinton in the delegate fight, the West Virginia results are unlikely to adversely affect Mr. Obama’s chances of winning the nomination.” The Washington Post reports on its front page that Clinton “routed” Obama, which “added fresh ammunition to her claim that she is better positioned than Obama to capture critical swing states in November.” However, the win “may have come too late to have a significant impact on the trajectory of a nomination battle.”

Before the “However” line, there was an important point in there. Clinton claims to be the stronger candidate for the November general election against John McCain.

A second theme in the coverage of the West Virginia primary is that while the results may not mean much in the primary, they may presage difficulties for Barack Obama in the general election. In a widely-distributed analysis piece for the AP, Nedra Pickler writes that Obama “is in hot pursuit of general election voters, hoping America won’t notice he got his head handed to him in West Virginia. … At Obama’s Chicago headquarters, advisers said there was no reason to worry” 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.”

As noted in a post below, Fox News’ Juan Williams (among others) made the point that raising questions about Obama’s electability will be considered racist (by the Obama campaign and supporters). But, as Williams said, some voters see him as elitist. While Clinton is still in the race, voters are weighing in on who they believe represents them better.

Relevance depends on whose purpose is being served.