There has been a lot of discussion about how Michigan and Florida got to the point that they are right now. Some say that Howard Dean is to blame for being inflexible, as if he could single-handedly overturn the rules voted on by the National Democratic Party, including Florida and Michigan.
Some say that Florida Democrats were pushed into moving the primary against their will by the Republican Party. Senator Clinton doesn't want a Caucus do-over and says:
"the Democrats were dragged into doing what they did by a Republican governor and a Republican Legislature. They didn't have any choice whatsoever."
This is not completely true.
In fact the Flordia Democratic Party leaders were promoting that they strongly supported having their primary on Jan. 29. State party chair Karen Thurman wrote in an e-mail to Florida Democrats the following:
Your party's leaders have chosen overwhelmingly to reaffirm our strong commitment to fully participating in the state-run Democratic Presidential Primary on January 29, 2008, despite the penalties from the Democratic National Committee
In fact, the Dems in Florida were gambling in a big game of chicken with the DNC that required "intestinal fortitude" according to one Democratic Party insider, Chris Hand.
The Florida Democratic Party obviously believed everything would be over by Super Tuesday and thought that they were so important that they deserved to go to the head of the line. They figured that they would get seated because it wouldn't matter in the count so they would have their say and influence and the DNC would seat them anyway in order to not make the voters of Florida mad. It was calculated.
The voters of Florida were screwed over not by the national party, not by Howard Dean, and not even the Republicans, but by their own state party and their desire to be important. They were not just willing for a showdown, but itching for it. They thought an early voicing of their opinion was more important.
Don't forget that the legislature voted for the measure 115-1 in the House and 37-2 in the Senate. Then it was re-voted on in the House and passed 118-0. This was not pushed through by the Republicans without Democratic Party support.
They also wanted to be sure that they had people voting in their local property tax issue. That was more important to them than having their delegates count at the time. Only now they have caused all sorts of trouble by causing a troublesome election is it really important to them to have their delegates count.
I for one am tired of Florida being such a problem in every presidential election. Let's have Bugs Bunny saw off the peninsula once and for all like the famous cartoon. (just kidding).
Just don't let them tell you that they were bamboozled into it. Their eyes were wide open, they made a calculated gamble.