The winner-take-all Primary is worth 50 convention dedicates, the bigger prize is political momentum.

My comments:

Winner-take-all means exactly that – the winner of a competition wins everything, with the loser taking home nothing.

In most competitions, we see winners getting a bigger share of the prize money, with the losers also getting something as consolation. For example, a boxer winning a championship fight may get US$1 million in purse, while the loser may get US$500,000, or something like that.

In a winner-take-all competition, however, it is agreed upon that the winner gets all the spoils while the loser gets nothing for his effort.

In our example, the winner of the Primary – part of the presidential election process in America – wins all 50 national convention delegates (delegates, not dedicates), plus political momentum.

The loser gets none, nothing, zilch.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.