Lonely Florida Democrats Convene This Weekend

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/10/craig_crawfords_trail_mix_lone.html

Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: Lonely Florida Democrats Convene This Weekend
By Craig Crawford | 12:46 AM; Oct. 26, 2007


ORLANDO — If this were a normal year for presidential campaigning, Florida Democrats meeting this weekend for their state convention would be overrun by White House contenders. It was here in Orlando 16 years ago that Bill Clinton stormed the Florida Democratic Party’s convention with such resounding success that he later credited the event for propelling him to the presidency.

There will be no such drama this year. That’s because only two presidential candidates are coming — Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, both longshots. The more viable candidates are skipping this historic venue because they’ve pledged not to campaign in the state, in light of the state’s unyielding determination to hold a Jan. 29 primary that violates the national Democratic rules.

The campaign ban — so severe that major candidates refused invitations for their spouses to attend a convention reception — was agreed to by candidates in cooperation with the Democratic National Committee, which is threatening to strip Florida of all its delegates to the 2008 national convention over the scheduling infraction, and to please party officials in Iowa and New Hampshire, which argue that Florida’s early primary impinges on their traditional first-in-the-nation nominating events.

Bypassing the nation’s largest swing state seems foolish for the Democrats, but no one has found a way out of this mess. And it means that topic number one this weekend is likely to be whether or not the state’s Democratic activists are angry enough to lose enthusiasm for helping the party’s nominee in November.

Florida trended red anyway, and this mess can not have helped.

But what in the hell can be done? Everybody's right--nobody's wrong on this one.
Comes down to who can outstubborn the other, I suppose, but the damage it's causing is scary.