In a political stunt worthy of the late Evel Knievel, the Clinton campaign decided to put on an ersatz victory party in the state, writes Dana Milbankin Davie, Florida
Cheering supporters? Check. Election returns on the projection screen? Check. In fact, the only piece missing from Hillary Clinton's Florida victory party here on Tuesday night was a victory.
Yes, Clinton, as expected, beat Barack Obama by a wide margin in the Florida primary. But all the Democratic candidates had agreed months ago to boycott the contest after the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its delegates to punish the state for moving up its primary date.
The result was a primary without purpose, a show about nothing. But in a political stunt worthy of the late Evel Knievel, the Clinton campaign decided to put on an ersatz victory party that, it hoped, would erase memories of Obama's actual victory Saturday night in South Carolina's Democratic primary.
"Thank you, Florida Democrats!" Clinton shouted to the cheering throng. "I am thrilled to have this vote of confidence." It was a perfect reproduction of an actual victory speech, delivered at a perfectly ersatz celebration at a perfectly pretend location: a faux Italianate palace with lion sculptures, indoor fountains and a commanding view of the Interstate 595 motorway. The Clinton campaign filled the Silver Palm Room, the Golden Palm Room and the Emerald Palm Room.
But even some of the faithful in the hall doubted that the big margin for Clinton, flashed on a projection screen, was an accurate gauge of the race here. "Probably not," said Eleanor Forte, on the outer rim of the celebration. "If they had campaigned here, it probably would have come out differently."
That was a nuance the Clinton campaign was hoping to overlook as it sought retroactively to give weight to the Florida primary.
"I am a gutter-ball bowler," Clinton said as she campaigned on Sunday night in the state in which she had pledged not to campaign.
The remark, overheard by a Miami Herald reporter, was no doubt meant literally; she was standing outside Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach.
But in politics, too, Clinton has recently been putting some questionable rotation on the ball. First came the South Carolina primary, in which she and her husband tried unsuccessfully to morph Obama into Jesse Jackson. Then came word on Sunday that she would fly here to celebrate her "victory" in the Florida primary - even though she and the other Democratic candidates long ago declared it null and void. She said she wanted restoration of the stripped delegates from disobedient Florida and Michigan (where Clinton, the only major candidate on the ballot, beat "uncommitted" 55 per cent to 40 per cent).
"There are more voters in Florida alone than there are in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina combined," Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle argued to reporters on Tuesday.
This was the same Solis Doyle who last summer committed Clinton to signing the Florida boycott pledge.
Then Obama's campaign retaliated with its own call to the press, featuring Obama backer John Kerry. "It is not a legitimate race, it should not become a spin race, it should not become a fabricated race," he protested.
Clinton announced plans for the Florida celebration on Sunday, the same day she held a trio of fundraisers in Florida and accepted the endorsement of the Miami mayor while pressing some flesh for the cameras. On Monday, her campaign claimed the endorsement of Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, while pro-Clinton unions continued sending out letters in her support.
All of this sounded suspiciously like campaigning. But aides said they were merely trying to protect the people of Florida who, despite the campaign's "scrupulous" refusal to campaign in the state, showed up to vote for Clinton anyway.
And so, at the Signature Grand hotel a few hundred invited supporters, many of them from trade unions, clustered around the ballroom doors waiting for the secret service to finish its sweep so they could start the victory party .
Clinton aides worked the rows of reporters and the candidate entered to the strains of "9 to 5" and roars from the crowd. "Thank you, thank you for this tremendous victory tonight," Clinton shouted. Well, at least a tremendous victory party.