Reality has finally set in for Florida Democrats. There will be no do-over presidential primary. No new election this spring. No mail-in ballots. Now it is up to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and party leaders to agree on a solution to this debacle.
It still seems inconceivable — and suicidal for Democrats — for the Democratic National Convention to convene in August without seating a delegation from Florida. The question remains how to make that happen. The Clinton campaign sounded desperate Tuesday in renewing its plea to either seat the delegates based on the Jan. 29 primary that Clinton won or hold a new election. That is understandable. Without Florida or Michigan, which is in a similar situation, even her campaign acknowledges it will be difficult for her to catch Obama in pledged delegate totals.
But in Florida, there are no good options left because of the mess Democrats have created for themselves. While more than 1.7-million Democrats voted in January, it makes no sense to change the rules again and say results everyone was told would not count are suddenly official. The state will neither authorize nor pay for a full-fledged new election, and an election-by-mail could have been chaos for a state that has no experience holding one. With no consensus even among leading Florida Democrats, that option thankfully has been taken off the table.
A negotiated settlement is all that is left. The fairest approach would be for all sides to agree before the convention that Florida's pledged delegates would be divided equally and the candidates could fight for the superdelegates. Perhaps Clinton and Obama could agree on another fair formula. What is not helpful is for the Clinton camp to contend as it did Tuesday that Obama is "an accessory'' in disenfranchising voters because he won't agree to count the Clinton win in January or fully embrace a new election. Let's remember that both Clinton and Obama boycotted Florida. Complaints about disenfranchising voters should be directed to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, who has let this situation fester to the detriment of the party's chances in November.
A new St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/BayNews 9 poll shows most Florida Democrats believe the nomination process has hurt the party. Almost 9 in 10 believe it is important that Florida delegates be counted, and nearly a quarter say if the delegates are not counted they will be less likely to vote for the Democratic nominee in November. That should be a wake-up call to both Clinton and Obama. Quit arguing about new elections that will not happen, negotiate an agreement to fairly seat Florida's delegates, and let's move on.
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