Column: Stop Beating Dead Primary Horses

This story was written by Jeffrey Riley, Central Florida Future

There are seedy things afoot in the 2008 presidential elections.

Back in the day, it was decided throughout the land that Florida and Michigan would not count toward the delegate numbers in the Democratic primary.

By now, we all probably know the story behind it. The Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Convention decided to have a contest and see who could urinate the farthest. The result over the botched moving of the primary date was Florida not having any delegates counted when the big convention happens in Denver.

So that was that. Florida and Michigan are scratches. The primary votes were nothing but a glorified high school popularity contest. Neither Obama nor Clinton did any campaigning in the state, and Obama didn't even have his name on the ballot in Michigan.

It is no good that it turned out that way. Democratic voters in Florida and Michigan deserve the chance to select who they darn well want to. The idea of something as trivial as the date of the primary being the reason to throw out votes is idiotic, but that is beside the point now. What happened, happened. It is dead and gone, a mistake to hopefully be learned from as we continue the quest to perfect the process of democracy.

Or is it?

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is trying pretty hard to get the delegates counted from the two neglected states.

Why is she digging up the votes? Is it because she cares so much about the hearts of the voters in Florida and Michigan, and sheds a woeful tear when she thinks about residents not getting a fair say?

Maybe.

It probably has more to do with the fact she won both states in a landslide.

That's right, she kicked the crap out of Obama in both states. Who would have thought that she would win in a state where her opponent was not even on the ballot?

Attempting to count Florida and Michigan is a punch in the face to proper democracy.

The primaries were not run fairly. Trying to dig them up from their lowly graves just makes it look like she is grasping for straws.

Clinton is between a rock and a hard place. She is behind in delegates, superdelegates and states won. Will counting Florida and Michigan really be enough to push her into a victory?

CNN is reporting that even if Clinton gets the chance to count the Florida and Michigan delegates, those added numbers alone wouldn't be enough to push her into the lead. Clinton needs to realize this and leave the primaries alone.

The whole thing is insulting to Floridians. We were not important when it looked like we were not going to be crucial. We were told that nothing would count.

Having a candidate come crawling back asking for our votes to be counted now is just plain wrong. If we as a state were not good enough for you to campaign in, then you don't get to count us in your benefit now.

The candidates had their chance, and they blew it. Leave Florida alone and continue with your campaigns. Dragging a botched set of primaries into the race is only going to make everyone look bad.