Reply #55: Also consider the following angle's effect on late voting in FLorida...

[krkaufman]

expanded from my earlier post... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4280405&mesg_id=4280405

Why did Senator Clinton feel the need to make the request to seat Florida's delegates just a few days BEFORE the Florida primary?

Couldn't this move be seen as an effort to skirt the "no campaigning" agreement, knowing that the request to seat the delegates would be given widespread coverage on local news in Florida, painting Hillary Clinton in a favorable light and as a "friend of the Florida voter"? Consider the following sampling of Florida news stories, published just 3-4 days before the Florida primary...

* Palm Beach Post; Saturday, January 26th
* WFTV Orlando; Saturday, January 25th
* WPTV West Palm Beach, January 25th
* Orlando Sentinel, January 25th
* Ocala Star-Banner, January 25th

Might the news coverage of the request have had an effect on the vote margin, and especially very late and election day voting? And couldn't the delegates request have been made AFTER the Florida primary, perhaps during her "victory" speech, when it wouldn't have had ANY effect on the vote? Was a similar request made immediately before or after the Michigan primary? If not, again, why the timing of the Florida request, just a couple days before the "no campaigning" primary?

The most likely reason for the timing of the request is that Hillary was scraping for every vote she could get, in an uncontested primary where she already held a significant name recognition advantage, to provide cover for her massive defeat in the previous, actually contested, primary in South Carolina, in order to slow Obama's momentum heading into Super Tuesday.

Further, reviewing the Florida exit poll data...

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/#FLDEM

...did the Clinton campaign decide to make this public request after seeing the late momentum from Obama, in the weeks leading up to the primary? And might not the publicity from delegates request be a significant factor in Hillary Clinton's momentum turnaround in election day voting?

If the "no campaigning" pledge was not broken, it sure looks like it was bent all to hell. Chalk another one up in the "do anything" column.