As we all know the Florida was stripped of delegates by the DNC and all Democratic candidates pledged not to campaign there. But apparently Obama's campaign has a spot airing on cable in Florida according to Ben Smith.
http://www.politico.com/...
A Florida reader writes that Obama's new spot is airing on cable down there, giving Florida Democrats a small window into a primary process that they can otherwise only learn about from, you know, the media.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton says the campaign asked the cable channels whether they could prevent the ad from airing in Florida, but were told that was impossible.
This may have been an innocuous mistake on Obama's part (the campaign is saying that there was no way to strip out the advertisement from only cable outlets in Florida), but it may provide an excuse to the Clinton campaign to respond with its own volley. Which I'm sure they've been itching to do since the Florida demographics presumably favors them there.
The Clinton campaign has already responded by denouncing what they call the Obama's campaign "clear and blatant violation" of the agreement.
Note the last paragraph of the Clinton campaigns seems to indicate that they're leaving room to declare the pledge dead.
Senator Obama’s flagrant disregard for the pledge that he signed is disturbing and calls the integrity of the pledge into question.
So, how big of a deal is it? Who does this incident favor?
Personally, I think it favors Clinton, since it gives them talking points to attack Obama if nothing further comes of this, or it allows them to dampen the SC results if Florida actually does become a contested primary.
OTOH, maybe Obama senses some momentum in Florida, and this was a gambit to spring a surprise victory that could damage the Clinton candidancy. Who the hell knows?