Net Results

The networks have gotten the night's easy call out of the way, projecting New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as the easy winner of Florida's hobbled Democratic primary. Clinton, in partial returns, has 51 percent to 28 percent for Barack Obama and 17 percent for John Edwards.

The tangible benefit of this win for Clinton won't be determined for some time. The Florida Democratic Party has been stripped of all 210 of its delegates to the national convention by the Democratic National Committee because of a dispute over the state's violation of the national party's scheduling rules.

The DNC contends that its decision is final, and if it is, then Clinton's win will be merely symbolic. But Clinton, in the days before the Florida primary, said she would instruct her delegates at the national convention to vote to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan, which has incurred the same draconian penalty from the DNC for holding a Jan. 15 primary in which Clinton defeated an "uncommitted" line (Obama and Edwards had pulled their names from the ballot in support of the DNC's position). And some observers speculate that the national party eventually will give in, rather than risk further alienating Democratic voters in Michigan and Florida, which are expected to be key battleground states in the general election.

Today's results do suggest a couple of things about the Democratic contest going forward:

* Obama's one-sided victory in the South Carolina primary last Saturday has not given him unstoppable momentum. The "straw poll" or "beauty contest" devolution of the Florida Democratic primary, with no official delegates at stake and the candidates agreeing to forgo active campaigning, indicates that Clinton -- still the front-runner in national polls of Democratic voters -- maintains a strong base of support.

* Obama has done best so far in settings such as the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina primary, in smaller "retail politics" states where he has been able to bring his charisma fully to bear. But Florida, where he was not able to personally campaign, suggests that Obama has a formidable task in overcoming Clinton in the quasi-national primary on Super Tuesday, with nearly two dozen events from coast to coast, in which he will be much more reliant on media advertising and less on personal appearances to try to persuade voters.