I'm preparing to head to Florida this morning, where I'll be covering the upcoming primaries for the next week. Since the DNC pulled Florida's delegates and the Democratic candidates have agreed not to campaign there, I'll be spending most of my time following the Republicans as the nation learns whether Giuliani's firewall is the best crazy plan ever, or if McCain's rise is unstoppable at this point. I'm preparing to head to Florida this morning, where I'll be covering the upcoming primaries for the next week. Since the DNC pulled Florida's delegates and the Democratic candidates have agreed not to campaign there, I'll be spending most of my time following the Republicans as the nation learns whether Giuliani's firewall is the best crazy plan ever, or if McCain's rise is unstoppable at this point.
Not that Florida isn't shaping up to be an interesting place for the Dems as well. The latest argument between Clinton and Obama has been over whether the latter is violating their early-state pledge with his recent purchase of a national ad spot on CNN and MSNBC. "The ads are a clear and blatant violation of the early-state pledge," said the Clinton camp in a press release. "The Obama campaign knows this, but has chosen to violate the pledge regardless." But the Obama campaign has countered by pointing out an intractable problem for not just Obama, but all the Dems: the two networks say it's impossible to exclude Florida from a national ad campaign.
At this point, the only financially and politically expedient way to win this primary will be an all-out national campaign, which might mean that both Obama and Clinton have no choice but to violate the pledge not to campaign in Florida. It'll be interesting to see whose ads turn up there, and of course hear what folks in Florida are thinking about the delegate situation. More from Florida coming soon.
--Kate Sheppard
