I think there is a seriously important thing to keep in mind about Michigan. Even though the Democratic race was not contested (and might not even count), the number of Democrats who voted was not so far behind the number of Republicans who voted a seriously contested event that does indeed count.
Now, let me suggest why I believe this is really, really important, Hillary received almost as many votes in her non-contest (328,151) as Mitt received in his real contest (337,847). That is good news for Democrats. We don't even have to throw a "real event," and people are showing up in numbers on a par with the Republicans.
The polls turned out to be absolutely correct. The final numbers for the Democratic un-contest in Michigan were these:
Hillary 55.4
Uncommitted 39.9
Kucinich 3.7
Dodd 0.6
Gravel 0.4
Hillary's win in this beauty contest truly has gravity because Uncommitted obviously was an option that many people in Michigan not only considered but also opted to choose.
I would like to suggest that not participating was a serious tactical blunder by Obama and Edwards. The New York Times observes:
The Democratic National Committee plans to penalize Michigan Democrats for holding an early primary by stripping the state party of all its delegates to the national convention. If the penalty is lifted, the state party will have 128 pledged and 28 unpledged delegates.
Yeah, baby. Close to 128 prospective delegates are apparently on the table for Hillary to pick up in Denver.