Time to get to work -- the campaigns are coming

The Obama Florida staff, L-R: Michael Raphael, intern; Georgette Brammer, Florida finance assistant; Corey Ciorciari, intern.

For those who worry that Florida became irrelevant due to the fiasco over the advanced primary date, I never was convinced. I'll still bet that our convention delegates will be seated without a big fight. And the turnout for the January primary was immense -- very heartening! And it had impact: John Edwards dropped out. Rudy Giuliani dropped out. That's a lot of relevance, in my book. But OK, maybe you had something there. It diminished our relevance. I concede.

But now we're about to come back into full bloom. Did you see the lead story in the NY Times on Sunday? Obama and McCain are charting strategy for the fall campaign, and Florida is one of the chief battlegrounds.

A quote from Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe:

"Organizationally, we have now built very powerful organizations in every state but Michigan and Florida. ... That is one huge silver lining to how long this nomination fight has gone on."

Yes, that's great for the rest of the country, and for us in Florida, we have the opportunity now to build our own "very powerful organization" for the campaign to take up and run with.

Case in point: On Saturday I went out rather late but still in time for the voter-registration training that was said to be a joint effort by the Clinton and Obama campaigns. There I saw a lot of Obama people, and took this photo of what was said to be the entire Obama staff in Florida: three friendly young people who have opened an office on Miami Beach and are working hard.

You heard it here first.

NBC wakes up: FlaDems not so bad

Over at Naked Politics, the Miami Herald’s blog, they’re reporting a mea culpa from NBC political director Chuck Todd, who maligned our beloved Florida Democratic Party as one of the worst in the country.

After a little fact-checking, he says that was back in the distant past – 2004 and earlier – and nowadays we’re much better.

I’d be inclined to agree if our Bless-its-heart party had had the wit to see trouble coming with the too-early primary date and had fought it tooth and nail in the state legislature. That misstep was only a year ago, so by my clock we’ve only been doing much better since then.

Late-breaking thought: If the state legislature is agitated now to be passing laws about boys showing their boxers, will Naked Politics be safe and legal?

Thursday was Florida’s day in NY Times editorials

There we were with the third editorial: “Florida’s ‘Theory of …’” I’m not sure that the virtue of the scientific side in the evolution debate is well served when we make fun of those who believe otherwise. There are framing things to be worked on here. Let’s do this smart rather than cutting.

And then we took a glancing blow in the lead editorial where it mentioned “the absurd front-loading of the primary season.”

Did we make the second editorial, too? Well, it was about Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, so there we were, too. Concerned like the Times.

Time to fix primary mess? Why ask Democrats?

They believe in miracles over at the Miami Herald editorial page.

Let's see, we've got a Republican governor, a Republican legislature, and a Republican newspaper, yet they'd like the Democrats to fix the primary mess. Caused by the Republican legislature and governor, with guidance no doubt from Karl Rove. With complicity, to be sure, of some duped Democrats.

Hey, Friday's editorial suggests, why don't y'all get up a committee of elder statesmen to resolve the issue somehow?

They hint at what must be done by describing the GOP as "Solomonic" and saying the result oughta "respect both the party's rules and the Jan. 29 results." And if we can't figure out how to do that (the miracle referred to above), our party "stands to lose any claim it may have to the loyalty and support of the voters of this state."

If that doesn't confirm the Herald as a Republican newspaper, I don't know what further evidence is required.

Here's my suggestion: Demand that the Republicans fix this. They did it. They should be crestfallen with chagrin at the way they diminished the weight of all voters in the Jan. 29 primary, Republicans as well as Democrats. Get the legislature to rescind, power up a new primary in April.

Well, there you see, I'm just like the Herald: believing in miracles.

Here's the comment I posted to the Herald's editorial.

Your political colors are showing, as usual. "Solomonic GOP" is pretty ripe. It was a Republican idea in the first place, and even if Democrats in the legislature had been smart enough to see the future, they couldn't have stopped the law's passage. Then the Republicans contrived to keep half their delegates while the Democrats got none. Now your editorial wants the Democratic candidates to fix this mess. How, please? I'd be asking the Republican governor and legislature to see the light and propose a solution. But no, they're happy to have disenfranchised almost two million Democratic voters. One of their biggest successes ever!

UPDATE: On Saturday I looked at the Herald blog and saw that my comment had been deleted. Guess it hit too close to the bone.

Vote on Jan. 29: Your vote will count

Sometimes we can be so pessimistic. Vote on Jan. 29? Heck no, it won't count ... will it?

Wait a minute. Yes, Florida has some problems with votes not counting. But that doesn't mean you should give up just because of a Republican-engineered flip of the finger at party rules.

The Florida Democratic Party made it official Sunday at a news conference in Pembroke Pines with Chairwoman Karen Thurman : Yes, vote on Jan. 29 "and make it count."

"The nation will be paying attention on Jan. 29, and Florida Democrats will have a major impact in determining who the next president of the United States of America will be," she said.

A score or more of state and local Democratic leaders stood with her as she made the announcement and fielded questions from a skeptical bunch of media reps who seemed to have swallowed the Rovian line that the vote wouldn't count, the delegates wouldn't be seated, the candidates will ignore all of poor Florida's desperate needs, and the sky will fall.

After Thurman declined to answer the third or fourth iteration of that list, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) stepped in and said she would urge all to vote for the nominee of their choice. "We will make sure they count," she said, and the Florida Democratic Party expects the state's delegates to be seated at the Denver convention next summer.

Sen. Bill Nelson said in the party's written statement that the vote will certainly count, and "On Jan. 29, there will be multiple elections and other important issues on the ballot in Florida, whether the DNC recognizes the vote or not."

Miami-Dade Chairman Joe Garcia said, "Florida elects presidents. On Jan. 29 we will have a bigger impact than any caucus or small-state primary. The eventual nominee will seat our 210 delegates next year and our voice will be heard."

One of the keys to this, my friends, is to cease fighting among each other over the whole affair, and proceed to get out the vote. One way or another, the vote will count.

Please vote on Jan. 29

It seems this will be officially announced later today: the Florida Democratic Party has decided to stick with the Jan. 29 primary date. It may cost the state its delegates at the presidential nominating convention next summer, but the chances are that the nominating process will get strong input from Florida's voters, and the delegates will be seated -- at one stage of the convention or another.

Here's a link to the AP story on the issue, and it's also here in the Miami Herald.

I'd be happier if the Florida Democratic Party made it clear that the more important issue on Jan. 29 is the constitutional amendment on property taxes, and that people should vote no.

Along those lines, wise words came from State Rep. Luis Garcia, who was quoted in the Herald as saying, "We are not going to disenfranchise our people and take away take away their incentive to go to the polls."

Our technical guru has a blog

Carol Cox is the founder of DemsLink, which does all sorts of wonderful work making the computers sing the Democrats' song. She has a recently started blog, with some of her observations about the Univision debate/forum, and others can comment, too. Here's the link to it.

Her blog also has a string of comments on our moved-up primary date, and if she says OK to my recently drafted comment, you can read in a nutshell what we all ought to be thinking and doing now and through Jan. 29. This is also the party line, though you'll be hard-pressed to find it in a party organ. Why this is being kept quiet, I don't know. Not me, though.