Obama and Clinton tie for delegates in Florida. 0 for Obama, 0 for Clinton.
--Email sent by the Obama campaign to news organizations yesterday
I picked that quote up from Chris Cillizza's Washington Post blog, The Fix, published last night. In that post, Cillizza wondered what this means for Clinton.
Of course, the networks have declared Clinton the winner, and she is scheduled to make a stop in the state shortly to thank her supporters.
So, does her win mean anything? Will it give her a boost -- even a slight one -- heading into Feb. 5?
You could really give one of two answers, but the truth is probably a combination of both. Florida had been stripped of its delegates as a punishment for pushing their primary up before Super Tuesday, so in that sense, Hillary's win is meaningless.
But Camp Clinton really needs a win. She hasn't definitively won a real contest yet. New Hampshire was a tie and Nevada was actually a loss -- at least, in terms of delegates. In terms of morale building and keeping donors on board, she can claim the win and break it down as a real world test in the broadly diverse state of Florida. Hell, that's what I'd do.
On the other hand, candidates were barred from campaigning there. Which means no ads, no personal appearances, no making their cases to the people of the Sunshine State. The results in Florida can also be spun as a leftover from Hillary's high poll numbers prior to the real world tests of the other primaries and caucuses. Florida can easily be seen as being frozen in time.
Actually, there's a third, darker answer. One that's making dem insiders very unhappy and one that suggests that a desperate Hillary Clinton is willing to compete on an unlevel playing field. That she wants to change the rules in the middle of the game and change the otherwise meaningless "beauty contests" of Michigan and Florida into delegate-earning wins...
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