Florida, Florida, Florida

Florida, Florida, Florida updated

It wouldn’t be Florida without voting problems.

McCain and Romney are in a real battle. Some are saying McCain will be near broke after Florida, so he needs this one. We know Slick Mitt will try to buy the nomination. As for issues, the economy helps Romney. But McCain really tried to turn it towards national security, succeeding somewhat. Terrorism was mentioned as the number two issue; however, the economy was number one.

NRO, which will no doubt be following the Republicans until this is decided, has a post up on initial exit poll numbers, including absentee:

The first wave of exit poll numbers, including absentees: McCain 34.3 percent, Romney 32.6 percent, Giuliani 15.3 percent, Huckabee 12 percent.

As for the Democrats, anyone thinking Florida doesn’t count isn’t thinking big picture. I’ve been against the Iowa – New Hampshire – DNC muscle game from the start. As goes Florida… Simply put, Clinton outplayed Obama on this one and now he’s worried about it. Even Eugene Robinson said that much today on MSNBC. No doubt Obama’s people want everyone to ignore Florida. Yeah, that’ll work. Clinton didn’t campaign, but she’ll be in Florida at the end of this big day. Obama didn’t campaign, but he did run a cable tv ad. And I’m including this MyDD diary, because John Edwards has earned it.

Oh, almost forgot, some guy named Rudy is in the race too. He’s supposedly got a private jet fueled and ready to go to California after a big win. However, it he comes in third (or even fourth), flight plans will likely be refiled for New York.

Stay tuned. Keep track of the results (h/t reader LivetoTell); or go to CNN (h/t reader CognitiveDissonance); and the Times (h/t reader FNelson).