The "Beauty Contest" In Florida

The Florida primary is over, and it looks like it was a good night for Clinton. She got about 50% of the Florida vote. Obama finished with 33% and Edwards came in third with 14%. Of course as things now stand, this really means nothing.

The name of the game is delegates, and Florida Democrats didn't have any delegates to win. They were supposed to have 210 delegates, but the national party took those away when Florida broke party rules by moving its primary into January.

I have to hand it to Florida Democrats. With no delegates at stake and no candidate campaigning in the state, over 1.6 million Democrats came out to vote. The Republicans only had a couple hundred thousand more voters, and they had an exciting campaign and delegates to win.

This poses a dilemma for Democrats. Florida is poised to go to the Democrats in November. Do they really want to anger voters there by refusing to seat a Florida delegation at the national convention? Snubbing Florida could push it back into the Republican column (and the same is true in Michigan).

The national party must enforce its rules, but they shouldn't hurt their chances in the election by doing so. I think the Republicans had the right idea (although it pains me to admit that). They punished these states by taking away half of their delegates -- not all of them.

I believe the Democrats are going to have to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan, but they should not seat the full delegations. They may be able to save face by seating half of those delegations like the Republicans are going to do. They should at least explore the possibility (and then avoid such "death sentences" in the future).

Although Clinton won the election in Florida, it is interesting that she did much better among early voters. Obama increased his percentage among those who waited to vote on primary day. This lends credence to the idea that his popularity is growing. It also makes next week's "Super Tuesday" more exiciting.