The Florida Legislature's decision to move the presidential primaries to Jan. 29 -- an attempt to make the state more important in the nominating process -- backfired.
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The Democratic National Committee says it won't seat any of the state's Democratic delegates at the convention; the Republican National Committee is banning half the GOP delegates.
But Florida remains important -- and will be more so if, as some think, the national parties recant before the conventions and let all the delegates in.
So voters should not stay home. Go the polls Jan. 29 and participate in selecting the party candidates for president.
Our recommendations:
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Republican: John McCain
A contradiction here? Certainly John McCain can't be called new leadership -- his Washington roots are deep. But like Barack Obama, McCain offers something voters are desperate for in the White House: integrity.
McCain seemed to lose himself early in the campaign, and it cost him. When he acted like any other pandering politician, it showed. His resurgence has come on the heels of his decision to return to himself.
McCain doesn't seem to care if voters don't always agree with him; he's going to say what he thinks. But he has shown a grasp for practical reality. When it became clear to him that his stance on immigration simply was not going to lead to consensus in Washington, he moved toward compromise.
Like it or not, that's how things get done in Washington. And that's how government functions in a way that brings people together, not split them apart in partisan rancor.
McCain still remembers a Senate in which members could express fundamental disagreement on the floor, and go out to dinner together afterward. We've lost that in an era when disagreement has become personal.
McCain has earned voters' respect from his service in Vietnam and his experience in the Senate. In being himself, his essential integrity has shone through.
Read the Pensacola News-Journal online here.