I sent the following letter to the Naples Daily News (Florida) and it was published on April 12, 2008, except for the last sentence:

I am amazed at the misdirection of blame for the primary mess that has befallen Florida.

For example, The Naples Daily News published an editorial a few weeks ago implying that the Democratic National Committee is to blame for the disenfranchisement of Florida primary voters; and many articles and letters to the editors are of the same opinion.

I have another view of who caused the problem. We, the voters and citizens of Florida, are to blame. Through our elected senators and representatives (Republican and Democrat) who passed this bill, and our elected governor (Republican) who signed the bill, we moved the Florida primary from March where it rightfully belonged to January 29, 2008. Both the Republican and Democratic National Committees which, by law had the power to set the rules, had already established that a primary election on January 29 would lead to the disqualification of delegates. In the case of the Republican primary, it didn’t really matter because John McCain won the nomination by a wide margin. In the case of the Democratic primary, the action by our elected legislators and governor has resulted in the disenfranchisement of Florida voters.

The media has reported that some Florida legislators were “livid” and were “fulminating” about the DNC’s position. The media has given the true culprits a pass. They are, in fact, we the voters and our elected officials.

We should all take responsibility for the fact that we again blew it as we did in 2000.  We should do this by rightfully pointing the blame at those legislators who supported this bill and the governor who signed it into law.