Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson, campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, and chief campaign strategist Mark Penn just completed a conference call on Hillary’s sudden insistence that Florida’s delegates must be seated at the Democratic convention.

All candidates agreed to not campaign in Florida, and the DNC had ruled that because the state was voting too early, its delegates would not be seated. According to the Hillary campaign, it is entirely coincidental that polls put their candidate ahead in a state, and that if the delegates are seated, most of them will be for her. (Florida’s Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally, the Republicans are winner-take-all. There should be 210 total, if they’re seated.)

PSD: All three candidates are on the ballot today, one of the most important swing states. According to the state Democratic Party, close to 500,000 voted early this year. There are more voters in Florida than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina combined.

Obama is running ads in Florida despite his pledge. (Note from Jim: They’re national ads that run everywhere, not just Florida.) We have not run a single ad.

Floridians want their voices heard. They thought Floridians wouldn’t vote. If it is Obama’s position that the votes in Florida do not count, then we just have different positions.

Penn: Floridians would be stunned to learn that their votes don’t count at the Democratic National Convention. They are 27 electoral votes. The signal they’re sending is that they expect it to be resolved… We’re extremely well positioned in terms of delegates.

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CBS: The idea of a primary is you have campaign. Because there was no campaign, what is this actually telling us?

Penn: Floridians ahve gotten a very good campaign through the national media. Floridians are voting in record numbers. Obama did run ads in Florida. The voters are voting. They have a good level of information.

Howard Wolfson: There was a widespread expectation that voters would not participate. We’ve seen record numbers of people. These are well-known candidates, with an extraordinary level of coverage. If people weren’t voting, there would be a case to be made that this wouldn’t be as important.

We don’t envision any circumstance in which the Democratic national convention doesn’t seat Florida. We’re really going to have only 48 states seated?

WSJ: The DNC is saying, still today, says no delegates are at stake. You were for penalizing before you were against it?

Penn: The agreement banned campaigning. We didn’t run ads, Obama did. The decision We’re not here to get into a fight with the DNC. We have enormous respect for Chairman Dean and the institution. But the people are engaged and important.

David Corn: Is it Hillary Clinton’s position that states should not be penalized for not following Democratic party rules and regulations?

Penn: I don’t think that’s a position she takes. Her position is that this is a particular circumstance, where millions of people are participating…

Wolfson: There will probably be a vote at the convention. Our position is that the delegation should be seated.

Q: What is the purpose of her event tonight (which begins before the polls close in the Panhandle)?

Penn: She’s going to thank the people who came out and voted for her, even though she didn’t campaign.

Q: Why didn’t we hear this argument a week earlier? Why only now after the results in South Carolina? Why no similar argument about Michigan?

Penn: The other candidates had taken their names off the ballot. Here you have a situation in which everybody’s on the ballot. Everyone had a level playing field, other than Senator Obama’s commercials.

Q: Haven’t you broken the spirit of the rule, if not the letter?

Penn: If we had thousands of households seeing our ads, it would be a legitimate question. Floridians are watching their national news.

Several questions were in the same incredulous vein.