Mike_Rosen's Blog

It now appears Florida will not have a do-over of its Democratic primary, leaving voters and Hillary Clinton's campaign crying that they've been disenfranchised. 

What should happen?  I say seat the delegates at the convention according to the proportion of the vote Jan. 29.  That favors Clinton over Barack Obama.  Obama says this will not be fair to him because he didn't actively campaign there or in Michigan.  Both states moved up their primary dates despite warnings from the DNC.  No one had reason to believe that either state's Democratic contest would count toward the delegate total to win the nomination.

But Clinton did campaign in Florida and she was smart for doing so.  Different facets of elections often end up in the courts (see Florida 2000).  Outcomes can change.  And any student of politics should have known that such a move by the DNC to disallow the results would not go unchallenged, especially when the Clinton Political Machine is involved.

Obama, in particular, should have been prepared for this.  His campaign operated from the outset under the assumption that if he were to compete for the nomination, it would be a long and close fight.  Evidence:  his campaign was much more prepared on the ground going into Texas and Ohio and Clinton had to play catch-up. 

So if you know that it's going to be close and every delegate will count, and that something funny was going on in two states with big delegate totals, wouldn't you rather play it safe and run as though they might count?  Clinton did and she may benefit in the end.