Senator Clinton took her case for a re-vote directly to the people of Michigan at a union hall in Detroit today, telling voters “I am here for one simple reason: to make sure Michigan’s votes are counted, and your voices are heard in this election.”

The campaign has accused Senator Obama of standing in the way of draft legislation for a revote with a series of legal objections; the Obama campaign says it’s the Clinton camp that’s playing politics with the issue.

Senator Clinton insisted instead that, for her, the issue is one of basic American rights. “I will always defend your right to vote, no matter who you choose to vote for in the end,” she said.

And while the Obama campaign points out that she said in January that the Michigan results didn’t count for anything, Clinton claims she’s always cared about the voters in the Wolverine State.

“I’ve been saying for some time that the people of Michigan and Florida must have a voice in selecting our nominee for president,” she said. “When others made the decision to remove their names from the ballot, I didn’t, because I believe your voices and your votes should count.”

As spokesman Phil Singer accused the Obama campaign on a conference call of pursuing an obstructionist agenda designed to disenfranchise voters, Senator Clinton appealed directly to her Democratic opponent in a subtler manner – while still managing to throw in a standard barbs attacking him as the candidate of rhetoric.

“Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people,” she said. “Today I’m urging him to match those words with actions, to make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election.”

“This is a crucial test: does he mean what he says or not?”

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Florida Senator and Hillary Clinton supporter Bill Nelson, who has led the fight to get his state’s delegates seated at the party’s national convention, thinks he’s found a solution — a state-wide re-vote by mail.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Nelson calls the solution “a practical and affordable way to conduct another election that would be fair to all involved” — arguing that the process “would be cheaper, less cumbersome and more inclusive” than a new primary election, which the FL Senator estimates would cost $18 million.

Nelson already tried to convince the DNC to underwrite the cost of another primary; now, he hopes the state party will foot the much smaller bill for his new proposal — which he estimates at about $6 million. He’d need an answer fairly quickly; overseas ballots, he says, would have to go out by the third week of April, with a return deadline of early June.

Read the full op-ed after the jump.

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West Palm Beach, FL — Campaigning in Florida Tuesday, Sen. John McCain attacked Sen. Barack Obama for his intention to hold talks with Cuban dictator Raul Castro–as the GOP nominee looks to appeal to the large Cuban population in the state.

“I would not in any way, as Senator Obama wants to do, legitimize an individual who has been responsible for …repression, political prisons and a gulag,” McCain said during a media availability with Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

Asked if Obama’s foreign policy meant he was “naive” McCain deferred, choosing instead to call the Illinois Democrat “inexperienced.”

“I don’t know if he is naïve or not. I know he is inexperienced…hat approach is something that I think would only serve to legitimize the person who has a many many year record, decades of record of cruelty and oppression to the people of Cuba,” McCain said.

Obama spokesperson Bill Burton responded to the comments by comparing McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton for both pushing a policy that “has failed America and the Cuban people for fifty years.”

“John McCain and Hillary Clinton both have the experience of supporting a Bush Cuba policy that has failed America and the Cuban people for fifty years. Instead of empty rhetoric, Barack Obama actually has a strategy to help advance liberty for the Cuban people, starting with lifting all restrictions on family travel and cash remittances and pursuing direct diplomacy. Cuban Americans will be our best ambassadors for change, and will give the Cuban people more space from their regime,” Burton said in a written statement.

Los Angeles, CA-

After a debate where Mike Huckabee was largely left on the sidelines with Libertarian Ron Paul, due to a format that favored the two leading contenders, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, Huckabee is looking for a boost in the last days before the mega-state primaries on February, 5th. Huckabee today embarks on a pre-Tsunami Tuesday campaign swing that will lead him through many of the Southern, and Heartland states-like Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Georgia- that are at the center of his Southern state strategy; the last stand for this Little-Train-That-Could of GOP presidential campaigns.

” I am optimistic about our chances and the path forward seems clear,” Huckabee said, in a message titled “Full Throttle”, to supporters yesterday.”When I look at Super Tuesday, I see a number of key Southern states, and other strong  conservative states, that are likely to add to our delegate count and put us on the right track towards winning the Republican nomination.”

However, due to McCain’s  freight train-like momentum, after back to back primary wins, and gargantuan endorsements like the Governator’s today in California( a delegate-heavy Super Tuesday state), Huckabee’s effort, while herculean, could fall well short of it’s intended target. Verifiable signs of the tough road head for the Huckabee campaign are already appearing, like large hurdles in front of a sprinter, trying to catch up to the lead runner. According to poll numbers released today in some of those Southern states, McCain leads Huckabee by double digits.

Insider Advantage has McCain leading Huckabee in Tennessee, 33 to 25. In Georgia, where Huckabee campaigned recently, he is down 11 points, 35 to 24 (5% MOE).

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While Republicans fought out a Florida contest with unquestioned significance, much of election day for Democrats was spent battling over just how much the Sunshine State really matters. On a conference call with reporters, top Clinton advisers made it clear they think Florida’s results are a big deal — even though the state awards zero delegates because it violated DNC rules by moving its primary into January.

Citing record turnout among Democrats (more than 1.7 million voted, more than IA, NH, NV and SC combined) despite a complete lack of campaigning in the state, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said “we don’t envision a circumstance in which the Democratic National Convention doesn’t seat delegates from Michigan and Florida.”

The Obama campaign responded with a conference call of its own featuring John Kerry, who warned the media not to believe the hype. “It is not a legitimate race, it should not become a spin race,” he said — just the kind of politics Obama rejects, though it’s unclear how calling the votes of more than a million Democrats illegitimate jibes with a new politics of unity and inclusion.

Clinton showed how much she thinks Florida’s results matter by holding a victory rally in Davie as the polls closed. “I could not come here to ask in person for your votes, but I am here to thank you for your votes today,” she said. “This has been a record turnout because Floridians wanted their voices to be heard on the great issues that affect our country and the world. I am thrilled to have had this vote of confidence that you have given me today, and I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure not only are Florida’s Democratic delegates seated, but Florida is in the winning column for the Democrats in 2008.”

Obama’s campaign wants the media to see this as strictly a delegate fight — mitigating the positive news coverage and momentum for Clinton coming out of what was always expected to be a big win for her. Clinton’s camp, meanwhile, would love for the Florida victory to have some legs and staunch the bleeding from the drubbing she took in South Carolina. Either way, the dramatic GOP headlines will probably suck up most of the oxygen on the front pages tomorrow.

Check out the Clinton campaign memo on the Florida results after the jump. (more…)

Tonight, John McCain claimed victory in the Florida primary.

Numerous reports say rival Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the race tomorrow and endorse the Senator. No one from the McCain campaign will confirm it. But McCain made a special point of thanking Giuliani in his victory speech:

“I want to thank my dear friend, Rudy Giuliani, who invested his heart and soul in this primary, and who conducted himself with all the qualities of the exceptional American leader he truly is. Thank you, for all you have added to this race, and for being an inspiration to me and millions of Americans.”

Word is Giuliani may announce the endorsement tomorrow, at a joint press conference with McCain in the Los Angeles area.

With 97 percent of Florida precincts reporting, McCain had 36 percent of the vote, compared to Romney’s 31 percent.

An email from Spokesman Bill Burton to reporters:

From: dailyreporters-bounces@XXXXX.XXX on behalf of Bill Burton
Sent: Tue 1/29/2008 8:01 PM
To: Bill Burton
Subject: Breaking….

Obama and Clinton tie for delegates in Florida.  0 for Obama, 0 for Clinton.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bill Burton

Press Secretary

Obama for America

FNC analysts are predicting a tough, close finish today in Florida. Readers: Who will be the victor? Mac or Mitt? Polls showing a battle for 3rd between Rudy and Huck, are there only 2 tickets out of Florida? How significant will the bounce be for the Florida winner in the upcoming SUPER Tuesday election next week? Post Comments, thoughts etc.

Miami, FL — As he sat down for a quick breakfast on the Tuesday morning at the Rascal House Diner, Rudy Giuliani said he is taking the election one day at a time. He is concentrating on today’s must-win Florida primary.

“We are concentrated on today, today alone. I am not gonna deal with any hypothetical questions (about February 5). It would be counterproductive to do that. We’re gonna win, were gonna win today. That is our answer,” Giuliani said after greeting patrons at the Miami diner and sitting down at the counter to eat a bowl of Raisin Bran. “Were gonna win today, that is our objective. And we are headed to California tomorrow to continue to campaign.”

He also continued his call for Floridians to defy polls which show him nearly 20 points down to John McCain and Mitt Romney.

“Now we want people to come out and vote, not to be influenced one way or the other by any polls, any predictions. Polls and predictions have been wrong as often as they have been right,” he said. “And the way you prove them wrong is you go out and vote.”

John McCain is back on attack against Mitt Romney.

Earlier today, Romney compared the Senator to a liberal Democrat, citing McCain’s cap-and-trade proposal for reducing greenhouse gases, and his support of a comprehensive immigration bill that many conservatives think is amnesty.

McCain fought back, calling Romney a flip-flopper. It’s the same label he’s repeatedly used to mock Romney in the past.