But narrative matters more… The NY Times looks at coverage of the Clinton and Obama campaigns over the past week and wonders did the media strategies deliver… based on the result yesterday, you’d have to say yes… Some of the highlights:

• Mr. Obama was the subject of 69 percent of all campaign stories last week, from Feb. 25 to March 2, while Mrs. Clinton was the subject of 58 percent of election stories, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Mr. Obama generated the highest amount of coverage in one week than any other candidate at any point so far this year.
• While Mr. Obama dominated the coverage, the amount of news devoted to the campaign actually decreased over the last week, accounting for 38 percent of all stories.
• Then “Saturday Night Live” thrust itself into the vacuum, graphically portraying a media swooning over Mr. Obama and badgering Mrs. Clinton.
• Senator Barack Obama addressed the issue of press bias today, saying he believed that reporters had been influenced by the Clinton campaign’s flood of complaints about media bias over the last week.

Better to be in combat mode that let the media define your current malaise seems to be one of the key messages here.

“With the Clinton media narrative focused on her being a candidate firmly in combat mode, she enjoyed a respite from recent coverage that had focused on her post-Super Tuesday losing streak and her campaign’s strategic shortcomings,” Mr. Rosenstiel said.