Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards angered Florida Democrats on Saturday by pledging to skip campaigning here and in other states that break party rules by holding early primaries.

The three front-running candidates still could raise money in Florida but could limit the size of groups they rally, local officials said.

Further practical implications of the pledge remained an open question, particularly given that a Democratic debate is scheduled next Sunday in Miami and candidates already have events on their schedules.

Mark Bubriski, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party, said officials were assessing the pledge and had no comment.

Other Florida Democratic stalwarts said it would hurt fundraising efforts in the state and send the wrong message to grass-roots organizers in this pivotal political battleground. Republicans saw it as a tactical mistake by rival national-party leaders.

Orlando Sentinel

My understanding is that they are treating Michigan the same way.  Not too bright of Howard Dean here, pissing off his party’s base in two swing states, one of which the GOP has won in the last two Presidential elections.

This also goes to show that when the Democrats were running around after the 2000 and 2004 elections screaming about how every vote should count they were full of it.  I guess every vote should only count when it could put Democrats in power.  The hypocrisy couldn’t be any clearer, and I hope Democrats in both states see that.

From the same article.

That fall, the couple headed to nearby Florence State College in Alabama. For the first time in his life, Thompson learned what it was like to work hard. They had no money; Thompson dropped out of school and took on three jobs. He returned to school the next spring and majored in physical education, with the aim of becoming a high-school basketball coach. He didn’t think he was cut out for anything else. With a second baby, daughter Betsy, on the way, the couple moved back to Tennessee and enrolled at Memphis State. But Thompson no longer saw himself coaching ball. Influenced by Sarah’s uncle, a respected attorney, he set his sights on law school. To prepare, he took on a new double major: philosophy and political science. Still working odd jobs between classes, he managed to earn top grades, and won a scholarship to Vanderbilt Law School. His third child, Daniel, was born during his first year, and Thompson supported the family working nights as a motel desk clerk. In 1967, he graduated from law school near the top of his class.

Top grades from Vanderbilt while supporting three kids and working all those odd jobs? That is not something a lazy man can pull off, not matter how naturally gifted he is.

Fred shows that he’s not much of a fan of retail politics.

Yet even on the best of days, there are limits to how far he is willing to go to please the people. As Thompson and his wandering retinue near the booth where the Butter Princess is holding court, most of his followers peel off to get a look at her. She is one of the fair’s main attractions, and it’s easy to see why. She is blonde and beautiful and all of 90 pounds—of butter. Carved that morning from a solid block, she smiles vacantly through the glass of her 38-degree display case. Inside, the sculptor, a woman bundled in a coat and gloves, is at work on another dairy masterpiece. Each day she creates a new bust, modeled after the real young women voted to the fair’s royal court. The windows are crowded with people trying to get a look. Thompson hangs back; he clearly wants to move on. This is the second dairy statue he’s had to endure this month—a couple of weeks earlier, he grudgingly posed next to a two-ton butter cow in Iowa—and he has lost any interest he may have had in the genre. He does his best to muster some enthusiasm. “Oh, she’s got a wand,” he says weakly. “That’s somethin’.”

I can understand his feeling, but when you are running for President, you don’t really have a choice in the matter. The stakes are too high, and you have to work for every vote, even if it means schoomzing a lady who makes statues out of butter. I hope Fred remembers that in time, because frankly, the rest of the field is just awful. I know Mike Huckabee is getting buzz now, but I can’t figure out why. To me, he is the worst of the bunch. Yes, he is good on social issues, although so is GWB, and how much has that helped? But on other issues, he’d be the most liberal GOP presidential candidate since Gerald Ford. He refers to the Club for Growth as the Club for Greed, he supports a national smoking ban (so much for federalism) and he is embracing a populist platform that sounds straight out of John Edwards. We have got to kill the “big government conservative” monster now before it devours the party. Mike is not the guy to do that.