The Sunshine Empire

The political knife fight that was the Florida primary election season came to a close last night and the evening did not disappoint. On some levels it was predicable, other times it defied prediction. The winners in the contests for the republican nomination for U.S. Senate and the Democratic primary for governor were basically running unopposed. After governor Charlie Crist departed the race with former state house speaker Marco Rubio, that race was over. Sink, one of only two statewide elected Democrats, also basically ran unopposed.

At the beginning of the evening I felt that Attorney General and former House Impeachment manager Bill McCollum would squeak by health care profiteer Rick Scott. I thought McCollum would win despite the close-to $50 million that Scott dumped into the race. Late polling had McCollum slightly ahead, but at the end of the evening Scott (pictured below) had won the nomination.

We learned last night that while Scott could not buy a defeat of the President’s health care reform bill, he could certainly buy the republican nomination for governor of Florida. Despite Scott’s mountain of money, Bill McCollum ran a poor campaign. He was blindsided by Scott’s entry into the campaign and never seemed to adjust properly. After McCollum’s principled stand against the Arizona immigration law Scott began to pound him in commercial after commercial over the issue. McCollum decided to introduce a proposal for a Arizona law on steroids in Florida and act like he’d been for the Arizona law all along. Scott, despite melting down in the last weeks of the election, pulled off a big win and revealed deep divisions in the Republican Party Of Florida (RPOF) in the process. Two “unity” events for the RPOF featuring National Republican Governors Association head Haley Barbour were called off midway through the day.

Beyond the division in the RPOF, the nasty fight between Scott and McCollum significantly raised Scott’s unfavorable rating. Scott will be sure to dump an even greater sum into his general election campaign, but much of that money may be needed to simply make up for his primary fight wounds. The Republican Party in Florida had a mixed bag in the evening as well. The voter turnout on the Republican side much higher than the Democratic side, but the electorate is bitterly split. I can’t see how a McCollum supporter can quickly and enthusiastically jump on board the Rick Scott bandwagon after that battle. This could be a good thing for state democrats, but there is always the lesson of 2008. I felt that the bitter primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would damage the party too much for November, but Obama ended up stomping John McCain.

Bubba Clinton himself came down to south Florida to campaign for Rep. Kendrick Meek against another carpetbagging billionaire and Meek ended up romping himself. This was also a surprise to me. While I thought that Meek would squeak by, I also though low turnout in places like our home base of Duval county would mean good things for Jeff Greene. I thought low turnout of base democrats that would be more likely to vote Meek would mean a closer race for Greene. I was wrong. Turnout was very low in Duval but Meek ended up the winner. Duval and north Florida seemed to be what gave Rick Scott such a resounding win as well. Yet sadly Meek will simply be a side show to the rematch of Crist and Rubio for the general election.

The general election for governor already has Alex Sink out to a seven point win, but Rick Scott is sure to spend another boatload of money to defeat her. There are some differences that will work to the Democrat’s advantage. First Sink cannot be labeled with Scott’s favorite pejorative, “career politician.” That may have been easy with “Washington insider” Bill McCollum, but Sink has a history in the state outside of her one term as the state’s CFO. Also, Scott had 5 months to come out of nowhere to impress the state’s hyper partisan Republican electorate. He starts the general election with a seven point lead to surmount in only two months. I will not by any means count him out. I stand by my solemn vow that I will leave this state should Rick Scott become its 45th governor. The people of the sunshine state will be the deciding factor in where this blog is written come 2011. But regardless it should be a great stretch to the general election.

The curious case of the Park 51 Islamic center in lower Manhattan is a fascinating on a purely political level. For years the go to political pitch to the American people from the political right was, “Muslims are everywhere and they are trying to kill you, so vote Republican.” The Republican party and the right wing establishment media did everything in their power to even try to convince the American people that the Hawaiian born then-Senator from Illinois was a secret Muslim. Through all of that the American people seemed to see through the noise and voted accordingly. Now almost two years into the Obama administration, the efforts to bring the American economy out of The Great Recession have provided minimal results. A jobless tepid, recovery and the ballooning federal deficit and debt have put the House of Representatives in the Republicans probable grasp. The United States Senate is less of a probability, but if not for the two massive gains by the Democrats in 2006 and 2008 that chamber would be in play too. The Republicans for most of the year have cheered for the economy to tank and go into double dip because it means greater and greater electoral gains in the midterm November elections. But just as the economy was dropping back into the doldrums, the Republican establishment took an odd turn back into Islamo-hysteria.

That the right wing political establishment is trying to drum up fright among the American public using the threat of terrorism is not a surprise, but the subject of the hysteria and the timing is confusing, bizarre, and telling. In 2006, current conservative golden boy Glenn Beck was appearing on Good Morning America with the Imam heading the Park 51 project and praising him as a needed element of moderate Islam in America. As soon as December of last year Laura Ingram as guest host of Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News program was interviewing and also praising Imam Rauf as a needed part of moderate Islam. Yet after this story had been a resolved issue for months, and right as what little momentum the economy had died, the right wing suddenly discovered this non-issue and began to hyperventilate.

The old adage that began with Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992 is still true today, “It’s the economy stupid.” As much as I would prefer the Republicans not retake the House, they seem to be going off the message most likely to win them electoral gains in November. The state of the economy will drive most to vote Republican in many key districts, despite the fact that the economy is in it’s current state because of their leadership. Barack Obama may not have been able to fix it, but let’s be clear on who drove the car into the ditch and hasn’t provided one idea on how they would run things differently. But this is why I find the sudden Islamo-phobia so puzzling. What does it bring them beyond what they already were going to gain? Now, even with the distraction on the part of the GOP with pointless matters I would still predict the re-take the House. But pulling the American people off of the most effective electoral issue to look more and more fearful of brown people is only hurting those efforts.

The GOP’s distracted effort to drum up racial and religious discord leading up to the midterm elections will not make them any more likely than they already are of taking back the House, but these efforts will not be forgotten by an ever increasingly multi-cultural America. Their efforts to win in the now could permanently damage their prospects as a national party in the future. As much as the Republican party leads the generic congressional ballot overall, when broken down by region they only win in one, the south.

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• @kklausser Zaxby Zaxsauce is a gateway sauce. Next you'll be abusing Arby's Horseysauce. in reply to kklausser #
• @aristoddler Oh yes, let's bring the effectiveness that Blackwater provided in Iraq to Main Street USA. in reply to aristoddler #
• Imagine for a moment that Viacom or Comcast gave $1 million to Democratic Governors Assoc. Now imagine what top story on Fox News would be. #
• @aristoddler of course no criminal elements would pay more for preferential service, and this company lacking oversight would act ethically in reply to aristoddler #

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• The right believes passionately in the 1st Amendment with regard to Corporate cash, but not as much with that freedom of religion part. #
• A strict constructionist view of the Constitution is surprisingly hard to square with conservative ideology. #strictobstructionists #
• The right moans Obama is destroying the Constitution, but it's they who have called for repealing 14th and selective enforcing of 1st amd. #
• I've said this before, but if you have more than five hash-tagged words in your point it's already worthless. #
• I wish Tea Party types would post a color coded daily alert as to how literally we are to take the Constitution each day. #tfrcot #
• GOP's new idea for growing the economy? Be scared of brown people. #
• GOP's new idea for reducing the deficit? Be scared of brown people. #
• GOP's plan for creating more jobs? Be scared of brown people. #
• GOP's new idea for raising the nation's math and science scores? You guessed it, be scared of brown people. #
• Seeking to block construction of a house of worship on private property by bearing false witness seems like textbook def of anti-American #
• Why is it more important for Republicans that Obama be in Washington all the time than it was for Bush to be? #
• Interesting Alex Sink ad playing off of the bitter Scott vs. McCollum primary. #
• The same people pointing out 70% disapproval of lower Manhattan Islamic center, were ones that dismissed 70% disapproval of Iraq War. #
• @tealtalk Now I don't feel bad for giving Mike & Mike bad directions to Mortons during the 2005 Super Bowl. in reply to tealtalk #

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• So, to wing-nuts, denying medical care to 9/11 heros & mosque 4 blocks from GZ cool. Mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero not cool. #
• Has there been a political movement more centered around cognitive dissonance than the conservative movement in America? #
• This is why I follow Kanye West, RT @kanyewest M.I.A's from the future. Our present is her past. #
• For #tcot mosque at Pentagon: cool. Mosque 2 blocks from Ground Zero: Not cool. Mosque 4 blocks from G: cool. Anyone following this? #
• Vampire Weekend is starting to get on my nerves. #
• Ending my evening with — Quantic – Transatlantic http://t.co/gcSulhH via @youtube #

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• So, to wing-nuts, denying medical care to 9/11 heros & mosque 4 blocks from GZ cool. Mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero not cool. #
• Has there been a political movement more centered around cognitive dissonance than the conservative movement in America? #
• This is why I follow Kanye West, RT @kanyewest M.I.A's from the future. Our present is her past. #
• For #tcot mosque at Pentagon: cool. Mosque 2 blocks from Ground Zero: Not cool. Mosque 4 blocks from G: cool. Anyone following this? #
• Vampire Weekend is starting to get on my nerves. #
• Ending my evening with — Quantic – Transatlantic http://t.co/gcSulhH via @youtube #

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• @aristoddler I'm confused. So now you're for Net Neutrality and Obama's against it? When did that happen? in reply to aristoddler #
• Aaarrgg http://twitpic.com/2etytd #
• The fact that nearly 70% of Americans are against the mosque in lower Manhattan is proof the terrorists have won. #
• So the same people who knock POTUS for saying Pak-eee-stan are quite when Petraeus says Tal-eee-ban. #
• I understand why Dubya called David Gregory "stretch." He's freakishly tall. #
• Interesting that General Petraeus keeps saying, "touch-wood" during his interviews with David Gregory. #
• Touch-wood is the English-Irish-Australian version of knock-on-wood. #
• Whatever your position on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are, David Patraeus is a fascinating character. #
• Just because the Iraq war is coming to a close and Iraq is semi-peaceful, it does not mean that it was the right thing to do. #

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