Do you ever get the feeling that presidential campaign coverage sounds too much like the roll-out of a new product?  That every state is “the” state to win, and that each debate is “the most critical” for some reason or another?

Here’s Ari Melber’s take on that, which he delivered on the day after the Arizona and Michigan GOP primaries.

Mitt Romney won Arizona and his home state of Michigan last night.  You probably heard that Michigan was absolutely crucial for Romney. The pundits said if he lost that state he’d be toast!

Of course, they also said that about New Hampshire! And if you think about it, Iowa was also hyped as the most important state in this race. Don’t forget Florida, either – a large, pivotal swing state that was supposed to revive Romney. But now everyone is turning to Ohio, the key state on Super Tuesday next week.

Do you ever get the feeling that presidential campaign coverage sounds too much like the roll-out of a new product?

The iPhone 3-G is the best phone in history!

Until the iPhone 4.

But wait, now there’s an iPhone 4-S!

This approach is better for producers than consumers. If you’re in the business of politics – as a candidate, consultant or symbiotic content creator – you want every week to be the “best week ever.”

But if you’re in the business of life, you probably just want to know what’s really happening.

So let’s put aside the hype and the sexy states and focus on the fundamentals of this race.

Let’s begin at the end. What does it take to win? You need 1,144 delegates to clinch the nomination.  That sounds like a lot, and it is. For context, Romney and Santorum each won 11 delegates in Michigan yesterday.

In fact, only 276 delegates have been awarded so far.

People may act like this thing is on the verge of ending every week, and you may be tired of it — but no one is even halfway to clinching the nomination.  Now, early in the race, it does make some sense to focus on momentum and message, not the actual delegate count.  After the first three states voted, for example, Newt Gingrich led the delegate count but had not proven himself to be a frontrunner.

When a race lasts this long however, individual states and momentum matter less.

Mitt Romney is not the likely nominee because he avoided embarassment in his home state. Or because he could do well in Ohio. He is the likely nominee because, like Barack Obama last cycle, he is consistently stacking delegates – 145 and counting.

Meanwhile, Rick Santorum is the strongest challenger because he looks like the only candidate, real or imagined, who is in striking distance with 82 delegates.  That might be more boring than the theatrics in every hot state, but at least it’s true.

Ari Melber is a correspondent for The Nation.  You can find him on Twitter @AriMelber.