Tampabay.com
MAY 21, 2008

Obama: Popular vote from FL meaningless

Does the popular vote in Florida count for anything, we asked Sen. Barack Obama on the ride from Tampa to Orlando: "Look, I think it's fair to say that in all these races if I didnt campaign at all and this had just been a referendum on name recognition, Sen. Clinton would be the nominee. That's true in Iowa, that's true in practically every state we've won. It's pretty hard to make an argument that somehow you winning what is essentially a name recognition contest in Florida was a good measure of electoral strength there. It"s even tougher to make that argument in Michigan where my name wasn't even on the ballot.

Obama also said splitting Florida's delegation in half based on the Jan. 29 result - which was the GOP penalty what many see as the most likely outcome of the DNC rules committee on 5/31 - would be "a very reasonable solution."

He made no apologies for signing a pledge to boycott Florida: "Everybody signed that. It was voluntary in name only. Had we not agreed to that we would be in a position where on the one hand the DNC was telling you this won't count, on the other hand you've gone out of your way to offend the first two states where you know that it will count. I would hardly call that voluntary."

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