It might have been February 9. Feb. 5 was floated too. It could have been February 26 when Michigan went to the polls.

It could have been---but it wasn't.

"We spent, what was it, $10, 12 million to be relevant...and we became irrelevant," Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, says.

In moving the primaries up to January 15, Michigan Republicans and Democrats broke party rules. The MI GOP lost half of its delegates to the national convention. The Democrats lost all.

The party elders argue the state was relevant nonetheless, but bloggers like Rich Hellinga feel more than a hint of remorse. "If we had stayed with whatever February date...we'd be right in all this heavy competition that is still going on right now," Hellinga says.

Griffin feels the same. He tried before the 15th to get the primary changed back. Had it happened, he says we'd all be better off as a heated race tends to bring money to the state.

"If I was a political party, I'd still have it on January 15," analyst Bill Ballenger, from Inside Michigan Politics says.

Monday morning quarterbacking, Ballenger says, is not only useless but wrong. He says Michigan got plenty of attention in January--and a battle over seating delegates is keeping the limelight here.

"And it could last a lot longer," Ballenger says.

Online, the mood is less forgiving. That remorse among Democrats is behind a call to vote again. On Facebook a group asks members to sign on as a kind of petition for a caucus. The national democratic party had suggested one. There are even t-shirts with a picture of Michigan that say," Do Over!" Much of that push is from Obama supporters, who are disappointed because their candidate was not listed on Michigan's ballot on Jan. 15.

Analysts and party chair Mark Brewer says a caucus is not going to happen at this late date. Brewer points out the candidates don't support one either.