Obama, Edwards skip rogue primary states, Yahoo! News 9-1-07

[veldamorgan]

Barack Obama and John Edwards on Saturday joined three other Democrats who said they will skip states that break party rules by holding early primaries.

Their decision is a major boost to the primacy of four early voting states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- and a welcome development to the Democratic National Committee.
...
Their decision is a blow to Florida, which had moved its primary to Jan. 29, and Michigan, where the legislature this week voted to push its primary to Jan. 15. Michigan acted despite the DNC's threat to punish Florida by stripping it of its 210 delegates unless it comes up with another plan in the next four weeks.

The prospect of five candidates bypassing Florida and Michigan would essentially turn those contests into non-binding beauty contests, with no delegates at stake if the DNC imposed its punishment.