They have the same number of delegates from Florida.

Zero for Obama, Zero for HRC

Hillary got crushed in the news over the weekend but she got back some momentum, first with the story about Rezko being arrested, and now with the whole "snub" flapdoodle.

What's interesting is that the Obama surrogates really really seem to be wedded to their talking points, the way I generally think of Hillary behaving.  Earlier you had Claire McCaskill talking about how the focus on the snub was "the old kind of politics."  Now you have Kerry saying the Clinton take on Florida is "the kind of politics we're trying to reject."  I have no idea if this stuff works or not but hey, I'm always a fan of message discipline.

You actually missed the best part of the Kerry quote:

You have a contrast today, a juxtaposition. You have an avoidance of a rule set up by the chair to create something that isn't supposed to be something.

Classic stuff.

The reality is that when the Obama campaign holds a media conference call and the very first topic is John Kerry trying to convince the media to ignore Florida, that shows concern that they might lose the spin on this one.

I've got no problem with Clinton having a "victory rally" in Florida...  I think it's silly - since she gets as many delegates as say... Mike Gravel gets - but have at it.

I find it rather entertaining that the media seems to be intent on NOT playing along with the charade.

My Lord, Obama folks.  

This is a huge Clinton victory--the most populous state voting thus far and the most diverse--and after a week of the MSM and even some Kennedy lions trashing the Clintons.

Sorry, no way does Obama deserve the nomination after losing Florida, Michigan, Nevada AND New Hampshire, and triumphing only in a largely outsiders-bused-in Iowa and a racially charged and segregated South Carolina.

The voice of true Democrats has been very well established--they do not want Obamaq representing them!

No question that it is smart to play up her victory here, which after will represent a huge number of actual voters.  I would too.  And I would buy a national ad, too, as a way to campaign in FL.

On the other hand, since she did plainly agree that the delegates don't count, it should remind us all that anything she promises in the campaign is just "smart" bullshit.  I have Iraq in mind, personally.

are TIED in those who decided in the last week according to CNN.  That is great news for Obama.

"The holier than thou attitude the Obama campaign is pushing, and the media is buying, is getting a little sickening."

That and the cocky and arrogant "young" supporters.

Progressive Blue

Here, here Todd.  It's one thing to talk about process, but I just don't get this strategy of slamming Florida over and over and over again.  What does it get Obama except possibly blunting some short term mo?

Clinton getting over 50% will be a story when over 1,000,000 Dems voted.

And...where is Obama's SC bounce?  Where is his Kennedy bounce?

HRC win in CA and New York wont matter because Barry will have won Albany and Sacramento .

It's shocking that MSNBC doesn't mention Obama's national ad buy which has been playing in Florida on MSNBC for two weeks!

Oh. My. God.

"You can't gain momentum in a state that everyone but Hillary Clinton pledged not to campaign in," - Robert Gibbs, Obama spokesman

Really?!?!  Hillary didn't pledge?!?!   WTF is this?

This is a Clinton victory, and I wish Obama supporters would simply concede for one evening like many Clinton supporters did during South Carolina.

Florida may not produce delegates, but it does signify somethings - mostly that Obama did not receive any bounce from South Carolina or Kennedy.  The more liberal areas of Florida are going for Clinton in huge numbers - specifically Monroe County (Key West) and even Miami-Dade's preliminary votes are very strong in her favor.

I think the biggest victory for Clinton tonight is that she took around 30% of the African-American vote and holds a command of the white and hispanic vote.  That's got to be unsettling for Obama supporters going into Super Tuesday.

in a state where no one has campaigned is ludicrous.

There is such a thing as trying too hard, and, given a chance the Clinton campaign tries too hard time and again. It's like that candidate Tracy Flick...the one Reese Witherspoon played...from the movie Election.

Holding a victory event when you haven't had a debate, haven't had real voter outreach, when the voters are just going on the news and name recognition...it's just pathetic. And it sends the wrong message after she agreed to observe the rules to back out on them now.

The signs from the Clinton campaign are not good.  If I were them, I would not be playing up Florida tonight.

But if I were them I wouldn't be running that new ad, Lifetime, either.

Omg, Chris Matthews just said "For the people watching now, this doesn't count, what we're watching here. This is an unoficial, un-ratified, basically outlaw primary down here that doesn't matter, it doesn't exist."

Tell that to the 1 million voters.  Outlaw? Doesn't exist? Gimme a break.

Todd, The whole holier than thou comment is a bit ... If you give Hilary the kudos for playing politics. Then you have to do the same for Obama for downplaying it. That's just fair.

Personally, I don't think it counts that much. After all, no one campaigned there. And many people voted absentee before SC and the Kennedy thing. But if she gets it, she gets it. It'll be a pyrrhic victory, though, in that Obama will cast serious doubt on it.

Okay. As someone leaning Obama, gotta say, Obama blew it with Florida. Not saying he should have campaigned there, but he needed a more effective response to Clinton's well-maneuvered foray. This is a critical battleground state, and pretending it doesn't exist doesn't make it so.

Whether the mainstream media buys in or not, it now adds heft in her efforts to change the narrative away from Obama's recent gains to her own.

But what effect, if any, will it have on votersgoing in to Super Tuesday? Maybe some, but I think the pro-Hillary people overstate it.

I also think she undermines herself by trying to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates. Most objective observors perceive this as an attempt to change the rules merely because they favor her. It offends their sense of fair play. Pro-Hillary people need to understand that this is the sort of thing that alienates people.

It's not as if the candidates will never return to these states.

I'd say that your promotion of the Clintons' typical "dirty politics" is par for the course (just to respond to your comments in the same spirit and tone in which they were delivered).