Hillary’s Victory in Florida: Why it Counts

by Ariel Dansky

One of Hillary’s biggest advantages in her campaign is her name recognition; even I can’t deny that. In fact, I think it is perfectly acceptable for her to emphasize the fact that she’s married to Bill Clinton in order to gain support. Understandably, after a president as incompetent as George W. Bush, it is no surprise that Americans are nostalgic of their nation as it was when Bill was president (and personally, I think Hillary will make a better president). In all, I do not find anything wrong with Bill being actively involved in Hillary’s campaign.

However, when angry, outspoken, red-faced images of Bill are plastered all over news stations on multiple channels at the same time, this is when it has gone too far. During the days leading up to South Carolina, Bill remained in South Carolina campaigning for Hillary, while Hillary was visiting several other states which would be holding their primaries on Super Tuesday. Apparently, Hillary’s advisors did not want to put too much emphasis on South Carolina because they did not expect her to win. After all, South Carolina’s voting population was fifty-percent African American, and the demographic was largely expected to support Obama. While in South Carolina, Bill capitalized on the “race” issue and implied that Obama was the favored candidate, possibly to lessen the potential fallout if Hillary did not win South Carolina. Although Bill’s intentions were to help Hillary in South Carolina, in the end, the image of Bill’s squandering for her read negatively. And in American politics, image is everything. Overall, Bill’s negative image in his campaigning may have contributed to Hillary’s loss in South Carolina.

However, in Florida, Hillary won a substantial victory with fifty percent of the vote, while Obama came in second at thirty-three percent. Although Hillary won by as much as seventeen percentage points, newscasters claimed that it was “not a significant win” for Hillary. I disagree. Although our delegates did not count, there is still a chance that they may be seated at the Democratic National Convention. After all, Florida is a swing state, and it is unfair not to include the delegates from such a large and diverse state. Further, in a way, the diversity of Florida’s population mirrors that of the nation as a whole, and Hillary’s performance in Florida may have given us a preview of how she will perform in many other states. Therefore, if Hillary’s victory in Florida told us anything, it is that despite all of the opposition she faces, she is still a front running candidate, and may very well be the front running candidate.

With Super Tuesday coming up on February 5, we may soon know who our democratic presidential candidate will be. Or we may not. In my opinion, it will be the latter. Although traditionally the presidential candidate has been fairly well decided by super Tuesday, America today is very different than it was years ago. The race between Hillary and Obama is a heated one, and it may very well may go on until the Democratic National Convention (and maybe by then our delegates will be seated).