In A Key Move, The Democratic Frontrunners Agree Not to Campaign in an Early Michigan or Florida Primary

    In a key development, the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama have agreed to abide by a DNC request to boycott the efforts of Florida and Michigan to move their primaries into January.
     This is a key development and it helps the efforts of Edwards and Obama to derail Clinton, as set out in a Tote Board column this week. The Edwards and Obama campaigns may have forced Hillary's hand by agreeing to stay out of Michigan and Florida first but their cumulative decision means that both states will essentially be holding early "beauty contests," unlikely to be covered heavily by the press. That puts the Democratic focus before Super Tuesday on February 5th squarely on three states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. These aren't the places Hillary would have chosen to make her initial stand.
    It also means, as we outlined in our last column, that the GOP will be following a somewhat different calendar in the first month. More on that later.