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It was a few weeks ago that Hillary Clinton really started losing it. Piece by piece, bit by bit, Barack Obama had pulled out every bit of electoral victory ground upon which Hillary Clinton stands. First it was the pledged delegate total. Then it was superdelegates. By that point, the popular vote was long gone.

So when she needed a reason to continue her campaign, an alternate ruler by which to measure her flailing bid, it was one of her own superdelegates, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana who gave it to her. “Who carried the states with the most electoral votes is an important factor to consider,” Bayh told Wolf Blitzer in a CNN interview, “because ultimately that’s how we choose the President of the United States.”

In other words, when the statistics don’t suit you, make your own numbers with your own parameters.

Now, Clinton supporters love to point to that number, the last little bit of hope that she has to convince her party that she’s the better equipped candidate to take on John McCain come November. And it’s true! When you add up the electoral votes (which have no official meaning in a primary election), the states Clinton won constitute a higher aggregate total than those won by Obama. But when you take a closer look at it, even the electoral vote justification doesn’t quite hold water for the former First Lady.

In fact, the very premise of Bayh’s offering is preposterous, because it factors in states that are essentially no-contest battles. True, electoral votes are the ultimate quantifiable basis by which we elect a president. But in tabulating the most competitive Democratic candidate, can you really attribute the electoral votes of Texas to a Democrat, a state neither Clinton nor Obama stands a chance of winning? Or California, a state that neither candidate has the slightest chance of losing?

Bayh’s assertion is misleading by his inclusion of factors that deceivingly (and intentionally, of course) skew the numbers in favor of Clinton.

Read more: Even When She’s Winning, She’s Losing - Eyes On Obama

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