The Daily Background

DNC Rules stipulate that Florida’s 210 delegates will not be seated because of their greedy calendar leapfrogging. Hillary Clinton has said, in complete violation of the DNC sanction, “I’m going to try to seat the Florida delegates.”

Clinton on Tuesday night touted her “win” in Florida as a “tremendous victory.” This, after she said the results in FL “don’t count for anything.”

Clinton’s campaign surrogates have also robocalling Florida voters, and a group called Florida for Hillary is distributing misleading flyers which say “Thank you for making Florida’s vote count for Hillary Clinton.”

Despite Clinton’s insistence that Florida matters, outside observers largely agree that it’s irrelevant this year for Democrats:

• GLORIA BORGER, CNN: “This is a talking point for Hillary Clinton. This is not a huge victory.” [Source]

• KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC: “What’s the celebration for?” [Source] On Democratic turnout, “That’s a lot of votes for something that don’t count.” [Source]

• BRIT HUME, FNC: “It is a little weird to have a victory celebration going on in a state where you never campaigned.” [Source]

• CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: “The Clintons are good. They have created a confection of victory that will be covered in newspapers tomorrow.” [Source] Hillary’s victory celebration in FL is “against the spirit, if not the letter, of the rules,” “incredulous,” [Source] “Clinton is currently celebrating her winning of zero delegates,” “this is fake.” [Source]

• CBSNEWS.COM: “Coming off a big loss in South Carolina, the Hillary Clinton campaign is trying to stress the importance of the Florida vote. That’s not entirely surprising considering that Clinton has a substantial lead in state polls.” [Source]

• THE NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER: “Clinton coldly and knowingly lied to New Hampshire and Iowa. Her promise was not a vague statement. It was a signed pledge with a clear and unequivocal meaning. She signed it thinking that keeping the other candidates out of Michigan and Florida was to her advantage, but knowing she would break it if that proved beneficial later on. It did, and she did.” [Source]

• CHRIS CILLIZZA, THE WASHINGTON POST: “Average voters don’t closely follow party delegate rules were likely unaware that Florida was not contested by any of the candidates and absolutely no delegates were at stake. To its credit, Barack Obama’s campaign worked hard to educate people about the purely symbolic nature of the vote.” [Source]

• MARC AMBINDER, THE ATLANTIC: FL’s primary is “just a beauty contest.” [Source]

• THE HUFFINGTON POST: “The election was mostly meaningless.” [Source]

• THE INDEPENDENT FLORIDA ALLIGATOR: “Don’t Vote: For Democrats, Florida’s primary won’t matter” [Source]

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog