so she won ZERO delegates? Good for her.

Yay.

BO is pulling 30%. Works for me.

Note, Orange County is weird. 30% of their voters went "other." Any ideas, anyone?

She won a lot of votes from a lot of people. That will mean a lot when the general election come around.

Go Hillary Go!!!

She will be the next President.

Great for this COUNTRY!!!

I'm just glad she decided to go to Florida to celebrate.

Guess the official spin from the supporters of the Great Unifier will be that Floridians are old and stupid.

Jim J:

The official spin is ZERO. Zero delegates. Zero impact on momentum. And Zero time spent in February 5th state.

Awesome "Typo" on Fox News site gives Clinte "2%"

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6721/foxnewsxv2.jpg

Hillary 2%. I knew she'd blow it. Blow my balls Hilldog!

Hillary gets smoked.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6721/foxnewsxv2.jpg

Tonight Davie Florida. Next stop Pago Pago, American Samoa! Go Hillary!

It goes to show her strength and this is what happens when the media doesn't go on a bashing spree of Clinton in a state. How amazing is it that she wins when the media doesn't target her. I can't believe what MSNBC is doing, just can't believe it.

Is it true that Obama own more of the votes that were cast today? People seem to keep saying that but I have not seen it anywhere.

She wins when no one else campaigns.

GORE (Coming...)

Note, Orange County is weird. 30% of their voters went "other." Any ideas, anyone?

Hmmmm...I live in Orange County. I didn't notice whether or not Gravel was on the ballot. There is a large college here - University of Central Florida, and he appeared here at the big anti-war rally a couple of months ago. He's the only one I can think of that may not have been on the ballot would have had any support.

Orange County is actually one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the country from what I have read. I just moved here two years ago, and what I have seen bears that out. It is also much younger than the FL stereotype. I would have been hard-pressed to predict the vote here.

If there's a candidate I truly admire, it's Hilldebeast. She's willing to kill to win. That's my kind of politician.

"It goes to show her strength..."

Her strength is winning in a state where the democrats signed a pact not to compete? Woohoo!

Jim J wrote on January 29, 2008 8:16 PM:

"Guess the official spin from the supporters of the Great Unifier will be that Floridians are old and stupid."

Good one! I actually had a snotty Obama supporter tell me today that I should do the electoral math (Why he stated this I do not know. My original post had nothing to do with election numbers.) Then, he wrote that I probably lacked math skills because I was a Hillary supporter and probably didn't graduate high school.

I informed the little shit that I had a Ph.D. in a technical field and certainly had more than a passing knowledge of math. Of course, the coward didn't bother to reply.

There may be no delegates now, but they will be seated. All the candidates were on the ballot and none campaigned there, so it was a level playing field. Well, except for the part where Obama violated rules by running national ads there. Fact is that Hillary won a large majority of votes in a very important state. Florida counts to the extent that there was a large turnout of Dems and this will affect Super tuesday. Unless something unexpected happens, she will take a large majority of the delegates that day. The meme is that as soon as voters get to know Obama, his totals will increase. The question is how many many people can he sway in a major media campaign as opposed to retail politics? Face it, he won in IA due to the corrupt nature of the caucuses and in SC due to reverse racism. No one will have won outright on super tuesday, but we will know the deal that day.

It appears the Kennedy endorsement did no good.

59% of Hispanics are voting Hillary, and 27% of African Americans are also voting Hillary.

This is a HUGE win for Hillary!

Nobody cares about "delegates--" that's just Obama campaign's spin.

This huge Hispanic percentage bodes very well for Hillary in the western states , which will crucial for the national.

And Teddy's endorsement didn't help.

Ruh roh, Obama. No WONDER you wanted your supporters to think "Florida doesn't count."

But apparently, you pissed off Floridians. And they KNOW you cheated by running TV ads holding press conferences , while Hillary did neither.

Not so cocky now, are ya?

Angry Vet - yeah I'm an idiot. Didn't get your joke.

It does not surprise me though, for the reasons I said, that Obama and Clinton are virtually tied in Orange County so far with the vote count.

Florida is a vital state in the national election and nothing looks more stupid than "50-state-strategy" Howard Dean deciding to strip it of its delegates. Way to alienate 5 million voters from the Democratic Party, DNC. How would you like to be one of these registered Democratic voters in Florida and told that you don't get a say just because some local party leaders scheduled your primary early - why should you be shut out? And what's sacred about IA and NH after all?

Hillary Clinton is not so short-sighted. She did not actively campaign there (unlike Obama who decided first to run national commercials which aired in Florida) but she did tell the people of Florida that their votes should count, and after the polls close she would be there to thank them.

One person one vote, right?

Well now with just 25% of votes counted, Hillary Clinton has received more votes in Florida than Obama received in all of South Carolina. Keep your eyes on this one. I predict that Hillary will have received a million votes when all is done in Florida - more votes than any candidate has received so far, votes of people who were told their votes don't matter but who went out and voted for Hillary anyway.

People count, their votes count, and the people of Florida know that Hillary can win and that she has the heart and the wisdom to make the right change happen.

Fiscal responsibility, health care, women's rights, a responsible end to the war - Hillary will get it done.

Go Hillary!!!

(For what it's worth) Why doesn't TPM endorse Obama. Their choice of articles and headlines already do.

She knows that Florida won't count for the primary or for nomination. If she gets the nomination and I really hope she doesn't, she can look good in Florida in the general.

I don't know whether anyone reported it on here, but MSNBC says big vote (Dem) was all early. Early vote heavily Clinton, late vote (after SC) overwhelmingly Obama.

Seems the Clinton attack dogs have retired their old tired names and adopted, new more feminine identities, eh Mary?

Just watiching Hillary's acceptance speech. Someone tell her that she didn't win the nomination yet, just the hollow Florida primary, where she was the only one who campigned.

She's sounding like Dean's scream.

Hillary has turned into a cartoon. Very funny, but also sad.

yes, Hillaray speaks in her new voice:

"Blah blah blah… spin spin spin…lie…RACE…distortion… GENDER…mischaracterization… 35 years of experience…obfuscation…ready day one,…strong independent woman… I, I, I... me, me, me ... Bill, Bill, Bill...
life long victim … evil men… LIE…pander, pander, pander …misstatement... fully vetted... Evil Republicans... Evil Media... parse, parse, parse …prevarication, exaggeration, equivocation, contradiction, misrepresentation, triangulation, dissemblence, complication, rationalization, distortion…spin, parse, pander, LIE … Hillary for President.

Oooooooh Anonymous. You've reverted to form: Obama supporter venom, with lots of childish put-downs.

I feel your pain. :)

So much for the much-ballyhooed "momentum."

Hell, Obama lost 27% of the BLACK vote.

I'm gonna call him Icarus from now on.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/01/hillary-support.html

This story talks about the 200 people "pouring into the hotel ballroom" to hear Clinton speak. 200 people? Including state senators and other party apparachiks, this is utterly pathetic. A cardboard cutout of Obama could draw more people.

It's interesting that she had local pols "campaigning hard for the last 2 weeks" even though she just mentioned this new "Florida strategy" a few days ago when it was clear she was getting trounced in SC. Seems like she's more interested in dirty tricks and media stunts than playing by honest and above-board rules.

Despicable.

Hillary did not campaign in Florida, but Obama did with his national ads. Wow, currently at 51% of the vote, this is a landslide.

What's this nonsense with the headline of this topic (For what it's worth). It's worth a lot. Floridians voter, their voices should be heard. Every single vote should be counted. Hillary victory is already being down played by these so called "expert"; she won, at least give her some credit for it. Would your headline had been the same had the "golden boy" won, Hmmm?

It seems to me that Florida voters are a better sampling of the nation than South Carolina. No wonder Hillary won more than half the votes...

SHE WON!!! SHE WON!!! YAAAAAY HILLARY!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN.....

DEFINITELY a rout. A LANDSLIDE.
481,000 votes for Hillary so far. She's winning by 21%, 51/30.

27% of the Black vote deserted Obama.

What do you think that means, Anonymous?

Obama supporters, why are you watching the Florida results? I thought you didn't care.. Zero delegates for now, but super Tuesday for sure will bring them to Hillary...

no delegates, no story. On to Super Tuesday.

I'm watching Fox and I hope TPM is recording this, Bill Kristol looks like he swallowed a piece of doo doo talking about the poor performance of Huckabee.

They are writting off Huckabee

Message to Florida voters from TPM - even your opinion and preferences are meaningless since you have no delegates to offer. All your voting is a joke to us here and to CNN and MSNBC. Of course if you had voted for Obama this would all be different. How dare you express support for a candidate other than the one we have chosen.

"DEFINITELY a rout. A LANDSLIDE."

When all the candidates compete, its a rout(i.e SC) - this is hardly the same thing, just crumbs for Hillary apologists.

As someone who was on the ground in South Carolina, I can speak to how powerful an actual campaign operation, which Obama had in SC and will have in the Feb 5th states (including AK and ND), is. Obama has loads of volunteers knocking on doors, making calls, dropping lit, standing on corners. I imagine Clinton is relying largely on interest groups and paid staffers.

When there is no campaign (other than, by the Miami Herald's account, local party folks "campaigning hard" for Hillary), name recognition and the machine wins the day.

Wow - these boards have really gone down hill. From thoughtful back and forth about candidates to "Hey, here's what I think, and I'm going to use sarcasm!"

I'm reminded of the old adage that one should never argue with an idiot as it won't do any good.

Anonymous wrote on January 29, 2008 9:01 PM:

"If Hispanic voters are voting for Hillary now, it is because of name recognition, not strong sustainable support. They will bolt like all of Hillary's supporters, when they take a close look and realize she is totally dishonst."

As Reagan would say, "There you go again." You think that we Clinton supporters are only voting for her because we don't know any better.

This is the same attitude that caused the Democratic party to suffer a series of landslide defeats years ago. Why do we want Obamamites like these being the face of the party. They'll repel far more voters than they'll ever attract.

"Obama supporter: Somebody turn off the news networks, they are reporting Hillary's big win."

Hillary supporter: All the networks cut off her "victory speech" after her third sentence..lol

Gee guys,

Those *poor* Florida voters... you know, there are reasons we have rules around elections and other political activities: to prevent chaos and present as even a playing field as possible.

I'm sure Edwards and Obama were in FL twisting the state party's arm into moving their primary date up. It's like suggesting I've been denied my rights to vote because I went to another state and tried to vote or tried to vote anonymous or some other such nonsense.

The time to complain about MI or FL has long since come and gone. You didn't see Obama and Edwards crying that their names weren't on the MI ballot, and you sure didn't hear HRC giving a rat's ass until just days before the polls opened did you?

Oh my God.

539,000 votes for Hillary. That's FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY NINE THOUSAND votes supporting Hillary.

She's literally wiping the floor with Teddy's little protege.

Methinks Obama pissed off some Floridians when he arrogantly said their votes didn't count.

"Oh my God.

539,000 votes for Hillary. That's FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY NINE THOUSAND votes supporting Hillary."

..a state that Obama didn't campaign in - Oh my god..lol

"Methinks Obama pissed off some Floridians when he arrogantly said their votes didn't count."

Of course thats what you think, it's convenient for you to do so - applauding a primary victory with no delegates to speak of.

The Democratic primary means nothing. The only reason for this result is that the hundreds of thousands of Florida Republicans and conservative Independents that intend to vote for Senator Obama in the fall temporarily defected to the Republican primary because they didn't want McCain. Or was is Romney? Could have been Guliani.

i think the DNC and the whole party is way off base .......caucus and proportioned delegates instead of winner take all states prolong the primary season and cause a lot of tension in the party....in 1980 the candidates beat on each other so much they were wounded and reagan won the election.....in this election with one winning the pop vote and only getting a portion of the delagtes will keep these 3 pounding each other possibly til may or june and in a year when a potted plant can beat the GOP..we could possibly end up losing because of this stupid DNC decision to strip delegates and trying to have 4 states get all the advantage of picking our candidate.....its not helping the party or the candidates or for that matter the voters ....obama wins iowa and is only 1 delegate up......hillary wins NH and the D's are tied ....she wins nevada obama get one more D....this is stupid....he wins SC and wont gain anything ......that means they have to get meaner and meaner to try to separate themselves and all we do is give the GOP ammo to beat either one of them

This is so unbelievably silly. Either the state is contested or it is not. It was decided that the candidates would not contest it, and you can't begin to claim otherwise a few days before the vote.

The idea that Obama doesn't "care about the votes of Floridians" is absurd. If it was an ACTUAL PRIMARY of course he and his staff and army of volunteers would have worked their asses off and the result would have been different. He was abiding by the rules - Clinton is trying to ignore and twist the rules.

Rudy got an excellent dig on Paul

"New number for you , Mark: Hillary now has 588,000 votes."

Newer number for you Mary, 0 delegates..lol

In the run-up to tonight's primary, Hillary was constantly talking about how Florida voters should be heard—that by definition is campaigning, whether or not she did it in Florida. It's called currying favor and drumming up votes. So, let's see, she wants to go back on the promise she made... and Obama is the bad guy for keeping his word? And Clintonistas call Obama supporters "divisive" for saying they wouldn't vote for her in the general?

This is just like in Nevada, when she'd originally agreed to let the culinary workers caucus, but then fought it in the courts after finding out they were supporting Obama. Zero integrity. This woman will do anything to get elected.

Mary--

I don't get what you're trying to say. Could you stop being coy and just say what you think straight out?

LOL Michael and Mark are feeling threatened. Getting testy, ain't they?

I had no idea that Josh Marshall had designated this thread to Obama, and that only Obama supporters could take part.

You're as arrogant as Obama, Michael.

But I DO feel your pain. Truly.

It must be very disappointing for you to see how badly Obama did, after his "big week with Teddy," and all the work you did on the internet to trash his opponents.

Better luck next time, eh?

Rudy has the networks by the nuts, they cut away and he quits, they're toast, this might be a machivalian infomercial based on groundless rumors...

LOL

You keep saying that once they know Obama, or that Hillary has name recognition and Obama does not. What America are you living in. The MSM has been shoving Obama down our throats for months. His face and his message has been on the news constantly. Remember he has Oprah, and Ted and Caroline Kennedy. The monolithic MSM have been putting him on a pedestal for months and slamming Hillary from the moment she announced she was running. Do the people of Florida not have a television set. Were they not able to see the debates. Do they not have the Internet. The delegates might not count, but their votes tell us who they want to be the Democratic nominee. The people of Florida said no they do not buy the MSM selling of Obama. He even had ads on cable television in Florida, where Hillary did not. Florida stood up and said hey want competence and experience, not an orator with little experience. The number she won by was significant. You can minimize all you want, but it does matter, and it makes me really happy.

Check out Edwards numbers in some of the panhandle counties. He's notably well up there. Keep in mind that the further north you go in Florida, the more "Southern" the state gets. Edwards still has some real appeal in Southern base... Might be something for the eventual nominee to keep in mind.

I'd shrugged off the Obama-Edwards ticket earlier, mostly because I think it'd be awkward to take Kerry's ex-VP choice four years later, but there may be something to it.

Florida demographics must be slightly different than South Carolina. This can't be Barack's fault.

Well said, BLS.

Let us not forget that Obama staff and supporters tried to diminish Hillary's win after New Hampshire by claiming the voters in New Hampshire were "hidden racists, "---a BLATANT racist dog whistle to the Black voters in South Carolina.

Games people play, eh?

Hillary's numbers are now 668,000 votes on her behalf. That's no "fluke."

Just ignore the little Obamamites.

Icarus has fallen from the sky.

Good night, and congratulations again, Hillary!

Stand tall.

"Hillary's numbers are now 668,000 votes on her behalf. That's no "fluke."

..just imagine the voter turnout if it really mattered.

To all you Hillbilly supporters...

1) Obama running ads nationally is not campaigning in Florida. I know that you want to believe it in order to justify Hillbilly's pathetic attempt to declare victory from a meaningless event. Obama is running ads nationally in anticipation of Super Tuesday, not to target Florida. BTW, you conveniently overlook the Union flyers and robo-calling done on Hillbilly's behalf the past week.

2) Discounting Ted Kennedy's endorsement is just silly. One endorsement came 48 hours ago, the other 24 hours ago thus giving Obama little time to reap the rewards. Furthermore, voting started in Florida in late December and finished up today.

As Obama has said and Hillbilly is so good at reinforcing, they will do and say anything to win. Hillbilly's actions would be funny if they are so sad and desperate.

I thought everybody hated Hillary just like I do. Where did all those votes come from?

This can't be, St. Obama lost with a landslide. We should ask for a recount. How many diebold machines were there in Florida, does anybody know?

teddys endorsement will help HRC more than obama......hes way too liberal for the country,,,,,,HRC is a centrist

Billary WINS!

Since she was routed in SC, she might as well go have a party where no one campaigned

David Gergen, A Daily Show
Jan 28

Clintons have no shame.

Billary 2008 reminds me of Bush/Rove 2000, who also cheated in Florida ....

Seriously, sleazy stuff.

For those who think that Floridians don't watch national news and know about the candidates, think again. There has been heated conversations about HRC, Obama, and to some extent Edwards. Obama has been on television here for two weeks. Some people switched their votes because of the Kennedy endorsement, and HRC still won.

She has made a strategic move that will help whoever wins the nomination. In November Floridians will remember that at least one Democrat came after the polls close to affirm them.

Regardless of what folks may think, HRC has grace under fire.

Gnopple wrote on January 29, 2008 10:23 PM: Reminds me of those folks who live outside of the reality-based community...

LOL. You mean the kool-aid drinking Obama supporters?

Mary,

You are lying...Obama showed campaign adds on National TV...and he asked the DNC before he did it. They ok'd it...he didn't campaign there....your lies have discredited you.

It was smart political calculated play by Hillary. It gets her and the news to forget about SC..but thats about it. Florida voters should be smart enough to realize that they only came to "matter" to her once she realized that SC was a huge rout. To me this is the "will do anything to win" mantra that is so often repeated by pundits...will this help? who knows...but if they seat the democratic delegates from Florida before the nomination, ie if this puts Hillary over the top, I will vote for the republican.

Hillary,

I know you need the press; especially after you decided to hide behind your "man". Do you really think you are fooling the American people?

Please stop your game. Your beginning to look much like the Bush machine.

The "beauty contest" exit polls still spell trouble for Obama with the White vote.

Category % Total Clinton Edwards Obama
White 66 53 20 23
Black 19 25 1 73
Latino 12 59 8 30

He even lost the Indies this time and this following days of Obamamania hysteria.

Check it out at MSNNBC

Greg....you are too smart for your opening comment. For what it's worth....You've got to be brighter in politics then that.

Yeah Obama just sweet talks to you people and you just eat right up. A lot of smoke and hot air.

Millssa Harris Lacewell a supporter put it this way in a widely circulated essay on the web: "The exit polls in New Hampshire were accurate for the Republicans and for the second tier Democrats. The only miscalculation was the amount of support for Obama. That miscalculation is about race. Iowa caucus goers stood by Barack, in part, because when voting with their bodies, in front of their neighbors, Iowans are held accountable. In the quiet, solitary space of the voting booth, some New Hampshire voters abandoned Barack."

Yeah I notice the race card being played right after NH.

Whats going to happen if he (Obama) doesn't get the nomination...is everyone going to cry discrimination like they always do.

like they did with Imus!

I will be watching, I have been watching it very closely. It's funny how the race card didn't get play after Iowa but it did after New Hampshire, pretty strange.

Now I am going to watch very closely for what is to come after tonight...it will be very interesting!

Nice parsing dcshungu.

Of course we are not looking at race, are we? All the votes will count in the general.

But point of fact, many of these votes were cast a month ago.

Of the voters who decided in the last month, once it became clear that Obama was a serious contender for the nom, Obama slammed her hands down.

Check out that poll, also quoted on MSNBC

First, most voters don't have any idea what their state Democratic and Republican parties are doing for an election. Probably 30 people at state level and 30 people at national level determined that Florida's vote won't count this year.

Second, more people voted in Florida than in all the other events this is year together, including Michigan. This is partly because Florida is so big and partly because of the stupidness of caucuses and because more people vote if they can simply mail in their ballots.

Third, there's nothing wrong with wanting your votes to matter more than a handful of people in Iowa and New Hampshire every election for 40+ years. California has 37 million people, and candidates give it 1/10th the attention it deserves. Meanwhile every waitress in Iowa feels she needs to be on a first-name basis with every candidate *PLUS* receive a college-tuition's worth of tips. It's a very skewed system we have here. "Fixing it" with a mad rush to Super Tuesday after South Carolina didn't really fix it, did it? It's all TV ads at this point.

Anon wrote:
yes, Hillaray speaks in her new voice:

"Blah blah blah… spin spin spin…lie…RACE…distortion… GENDER…mischaracterization… 35 years of experience…obfuscation…ready day one,…strong independent woman… I, I, I... me, me, me ... Bill, Bill, Bill...
life long victim … evil men… LIE…pander, pander, pander …misstatement... fully vetted... Evil Republicans... Evil Media... parse, parse, parse …prevarication, exaggeration, equivocation, contradiction, misrepresentation, triangulation, dissemblence, complication, rationalization, distortion…spin, parse, pander, LIE … Hillary for President.
_______
That is too stinking funny. The best comedy is the truth! I gotta forward that one. I'm still laughing, I really needed it.

Although calling for the delegates to be seated and giving a victory speech is solid hard ball politics... it's the exact reason why I got out of the game. Rules are set and then you work as hard as you can to circumvent those rules... as you can see, Bush 2.0 does this with signing statements, Clinton does it by taking credit for a victory that she didn't really win...

Mr. Purple

The Gender Gap...

Gender Turnout
Male 41% Hillary 42% Obama 38%
Female 59% Hillary 54% Obama 31%

CNN calls it for Hillary, for what it's worth.

Everything, possibly. Florida has 210 delegates, which Clinton nand Obama would split if they exist. Or do they? Word is those delegates are going to be activel campigning for spots at the convention in June. If it's a close race for delegates, the split difference from the "phantom" delegates could play th kingmaker. Everyone who washes tonight's results aside, take note. Just like in 2000, we'll be hearing about Florida in the months to come.

I LOVE you Hillary

What's the freaking wrong with Wolf Blizer? this moron keeps saying there is no delegate involved while never bothers to mention those delegates may eventually be seated or be contested? he even claims that the Floridans are so stupid that they did not know the delegates were stripped. is this man Obama's gay lover or what? As disgusting as it could get!!!

Yes, imagine the passion...but I am happy just learning from what happened and knowing that we are on track for a great Super Duper Tuesday...

Taylor Marsh is a failed actress, abysmal writer, and a complete fucking hack.

Mark wrote on January 29, 2008 11:25 PM:
"Yes, imagine the passion...but I am happy just learning from what happened and knowing that we are on track for a great Super Duper Tuesday..."

Talking about a major derailment, considering that one million votes were cast before Obama's victory in SC.

-- So you want to take away early voting now? FYI, later deciders break very much more for clinton.

" So you want to take away early voting now? FYI, later deciders break very much more for clinton."

FYI, that's horseshit - and "the getting rid of early voting" argument is a convenient misrepresentation.

On Mageduley's post.

Very insightful post!
But let me ask you, If Hillary wins the democratic nomination, who are you going to vote for, Romney or McCain?

All the best,

mark,

Horseshit is you. Check out this site: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/29/exit-polls-clinton-wins-late-deciders/. What did you whine about derailment for if you don't think there is anything wrong with early voting?

I'm a left leaning independent voter. I live in California and plan to vote for Barack Obama in the CA Primary. Although it has been my intention to vote for Barack Obama for a while now, I had admiration for Hillary Clinton and thought that she was doing a good job in the debates. This was until South Carolina. I found the comments made by President Bill Clinton about Barack & Jesse Jackson were appalling. It was loaded with racist undertones. I was also disappointed with Hillary's statement that although Martin Luther King Jr. was a motivational speaker, it was President LBJ who signed the Civil Rights Act. Implicit in this statement is that although it's great to have someone like MLK Jr., it takes a white person to make change happen. Again, there was this implicit racism in that comment. This has soured me on the Clinton's.
As a member of the gay community, the Clinton's always come to us for money and votes, what did we get in return DOMA and DADT. Even George W. (the horrible President that he was, well, is) never signed into law anti-gay discrimination laws. He hid behind the Federal Marriage Amendment which he knew would never go anywhere. He threw meat to his base with an amendment that he knew wouldn't go anywhere. President Clinton however signed DADT and DOMA into law which are real policies that are still in tact today.
Needless to say, I am not a one issue person and George W.'s policies have appalled me in such profound ways.
I spoke with my knee jerk Democratic mother in Florida today and she told me that she will only vote for Hillary Clinton and not Barack Obama. I think the old school Democrats and well old Democrats are really behind Hillary. My mother actually told me that if Hillary doesn't get the nomination that she will vote for John McCain, which scared the hell out of me. Iraq for another 100 years anyone?
I'm concerned that we are going to end up with John McCain as our next President. He will appoint one, maybe two very conservative Supreme Court Justices and the end of Roe v. Wade and gay marriage, goodbye. I have read so many comments on these boards, "I hate Hillary if she gets the nod I'm going with McCain" or "Barack is inexperienced I'm going with McCain."
I have decided that if Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, I will vote for her even with all of these issues I have with them. I feel like the Republicans are coalescing around McCain, progressives need to unify and coalesce around a candidate soon. After next Tuesday if Obama takes an electoral beating (which I hope doesn't happen) I think that we all need to get over our shit and get behind Hillary unless we want another 8 years of Military, Military, Military.

Stupid, there are delegates. Whether they are seated or not is an open question! Does anyone think FL will not send a delegation to the convention?

HRC carries Florida

With 62 percent of the votes in, Hillary's up at 50 percent, with Obama at 31 percent and Edwards just over the crucial-if-it-mattered 15 percent mark.

As my colleague David Kuhn pointed out to me earlier today, she gets Romney's Nevada advantage — while the cable networks, and their audiences, and the GOP campaigns, wait for the numbers that will decide the winner on the other side, they've got little to do other than show her footage and carry her speech.

Commentators are doing their best to minimize the occasion, though.

It "has the look of an event," Chris Matthews sniffed on MSNBC of the Florida rally.

"It's our job to say she's doing that because she does want that picture," said Campbell Brown, as CNN showed the picture of the rally.

"It is a little weird to have a victory celebration going on in a state where you never campaigned," said Brit Hume on Fox.

One thing to note: The numbers don't seem to indicate any post-South Carolina, post-Kennedy surge —- both events that were presumably well known in Florida.

A St. Petersburg Times poll had Clinton at 42 percent, Obama at 23 percent, and Edwards at 12 percent — meaning that they divided up the undecideds (from that poll at least) roughly evenly.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Exit polls (page 5) have Hillary winning among voters who made up their minds more than a month ago, and voters who made up their minds today; Obama won among those who made up their minds in the last month (but not today). Which does suggest that the playing field has changed, and that the Florida results don't quite reflect it.

Stupid media: DNC decided not to award delegates; Candidates pledged not to compaign. Candidates never pledged not to count delegates. If you cannot get this right, how do you can yourselves reporters or journalists?

mageduley wrote on January 30, 2008 12:02 AM:

"Hill keeps telling us what "SHE" is going to do for us. Obama tells us what we can do as a nation TOGETHER. Think about it. It is worth fighting for."

Look, Mageduley, this whole spiel is bunk. Americans don't want to make legislation. Americans don't want to design health care programs. Americans don't want to design economic policy. They're too busy with their own lives. That's why they hire congressmen and presidents.

Citizen voters are like shareholders in a corporation. They elect directors who elect officers to run the corporation. They just want competent people running the show. If the stockholders feels management isn't competent, they throw them out. From this perspective, Bill Clinton was very successful. George Bush, on the other hand, was a vision president.

There's no romance here. There is good government with good problem solvers and there is bad or mediocre government. But, there is no utopian state of national interconnectedness. The only time those things occur is in disasters or world wars. Want one of those?

Early voting went to Hillary..
No route good try.

I dont hate Hillary but to be honest she does not capture any exictment. It must be hard to support Hillary knowing in your heart she cant inspire a nation let alone half her party.

She has no principles, no integrity, and her being in Florida claiming "victory" is just shameful.

If Obama loses the primary to her a large part of the party are going to be extremely sad and I doubt the democrats can recover from it.

Cheers to another 4 years of republican rule if you clowns dont wake up.

Noah Samuels,

Please, there was no implicit "need a white man" in the MLK/LBJ flap - you needed a president - black, white, pink, orange. Many police will tell you they hate the drug laws, but as long as they're on the books, they have to enforce them. Street action is very important, but if it doesn't end in legislation or review of law, it's often irrelevant.

Thurgood Marshall, a brilliant black man, pushed the black NAACP cause through the courts all through the 1940's & 1950's - without this working through the system, much of MLK's work would have been useless as well. In many ways MLK's protests were leveraging these court rulings to get them actually implemented in practice.

On the Caroline Kennedy endorsement they showed man walking on the moon - a dream of JFK's but implemented by LBJ. There's no racism there, just an understanding of how change happens.

Regarding Jesse Jackson, he'd be the first to tell you that he did a good job in his Rainbow Coalition in getting a diverse constituency - I remember a lot of young white supporters in his caucus. Was it good enough? No, not for the nationals, even though he surprised everyone and did much better in 1988. Obama is running against stronger candidates, and in terms of crossover appeal has done better than Jackson, but the demographics don't look like its enough. It's partly bad timing - this year a woman is drawing huge amounts of the female vote as well as the elderly, and with the electorate voting about 59% female, that's a tough margin to overcome. The good news I think is that we're still looking like we can put together a strong Clinton/Obama ticket to run against McCain in the fall, if we don't rip ourselves apart. That would be good for blacks, for women, for young people and for the elderly. (I guess I'm left out there, but it's about time an election focused on some different needs, and besides all any Republican politician seems to think I want is more war, more isolation and lower taxes).

Gee, I hope the people of FL are looking at this blog. According to most of these folks (who hate Hillary) your vote doesn't count for anything. I guess these folks also don't think that an FL vote matters in the regular election even though the Dems lost the last 2 because of FL. I guess that means that everyone there has a red elephant.

The people on this board should be ashamed. (Bow your head stupid!)

"What did you whine about derailment for if you don't think there is anything wrong with early voting"

Actually the horseshit is on you, notice how that website didn't site any specific numbers - that being said, you can't quarrel with the first million votes being cast before the DC win.

Hillary's dishonest spin machine goes into overdrive, trying to create something to feel good about. They need it. Hillary is losing momentum and the trust of the voters very fast. Washington Pose columnist Dana Milbank talked realistically about Hillary's "big" "win" in Florida:

"Cheering supporters? Check. Election returns on the projection screen? Check. Andrea Mitchell and Candy Crowley doing stand-ups? Check and check. In fact, the only piece missing from Hillary Clinton's Florida victory party here Tuesday night was a victory.

Yes, Clinton, as expected, beat Barack Obama by a wide margin in the Florida primary. But all the Democratic candidates had agreed months ago to boycott the contest after the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its delegates to punish the state for moving up its primary date. The result was a primary without purpose, a show about nothing."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/29/AR2008012902998.html?hpid=topnews

Hillary is becoming a cartoon canidate. So very funny, but also sad to watch.

Cant wait till Billary starts screaming that it's unamerican not to seat the florida delegates after she agreed like everyone else that their votes wouldn't count. Kinda funny seeing as 2 weeks ago she was screaming how the Nevada caucus's were unfair because it made it too easy for some people to get their vote counted. I guess she feels the most comfortable in the morally gray hemisphere of the political world. If she wins the demo nod I'm voting Macain so all the short sided women supporters can deal with a pro war pro life moron for the next 8 years. Vote Obama.

"What value is he, if he can't even lead his own supporters to be civil to the rest of us?"

Can I have weak ass arguments for 500 Alex?

"Shame on your ignorant Obamabots!!!"

Gotta love the incoherent spin.

Now Edwards is dropping out. Likely won't endorse, but I suspect he'll lean toward Clinton. Presuming that Edward's voters go 50/50 and I actually think they to 2/3 to Clinton, this makes her rout of Obama in Florida and her leads in the Super Tuesday states even more insurmountable. This was a good win, even if seating the delegates remains to be resolved. A win is a win.

Oh yea Mr. Seargent, Florida is meaningless. Florida is just a tiny little state that nobody ever pays attention to.

Wake up! Delegates or no delegates, FL is a very important state. Hillary was very wise to go to FL as soon as the polls closed; Florida has clearly held a significant place in general elections and 2008 will be no different.

The DNC was wrong; punishing states in this way by not seating the delegates is ludicrous, and we have not heard the end of this. Florida delegates will likely count in the end, to Hillary Clinton's benefit.