Seeking to trip up Barack Obama's march to the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton plans to overlap with his much-ballyhooed trip to Florida that begins Wednesday.
Florida voters will see back-to-back visits from Republican John McCain and Obama that signaled the general election campaign was under way — until word leaked out Monday that Clinton, too, is coming to the state this week.
Clinton is expected to continue pushing for her contested victories in Florida and Michigan to count, though she still would not earn enough delegates to overtake Obama. And McCain and Obama's increasingly heated battle over foreign policy in Latin America and the Middle East could make it challenging for Clinton to get a word in.
Details of her visit to Palm Beach County on Wednesday were not available Monday night.
''It's pretty clear the reason all three are going to be here is because the nominee of both parties is going to have to fight hard to win Florida in November,'' said state Sen. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton, a Clinton supporter. ``We have every reason to believe Florida is in play.''
McCain is up first, with a speech Tuesday at the Sheraton Miami Mart that will be his first speech on Cuba and Latin America policy since he became his party's presumptive nominee. Obama will arrive Wednesday for a three-day swing through Central and South Florida — including stops at the Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami and B'nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton. No details of Clinton's itinerary were available.
Read the full story at MiamiHerald.com.