The Sunshine Empire

At the beginning of the of the general election cycle of this marathon race for the White House, I did not think that there was any chance that my home state would go for Senator Obama. The ever trending conservative nature of the state, combined with it’s overwhelming support of Hillary Clinton in the non-primary led me to believe that it would be a repeat of the 2004 contest. Much like 2004 I felt that the race would be a bit tight, but still end up with around a 5 percent win for the Republican candidate. Yet after yesterday’s overflowing support for Senator Obama in Republican red Northern Florida, and this new story from The St. Petersburg Times regarding fence sitters massing for Obama gives me hope that I could have been wrong. I am often as wrong as I am right about politics.

I was wrong to turn off the television set this evening as Peyton Manning drove the Colts into the lead with one minute and change left against my beloved Jacksonville Jaguars. I have the strange superstition that when my teams perform badly, it’s because I’m watching them. But the Jaguars put the finishing touches on a bad weekend for the former Tennessee Volunteer, and it was former Gator Fred Taylor’s running along with Maurice Jones-Drew that saved the day for the boys from Duval. Actually all the praise should be given to David Garrard, proving the type of clutch quarterback he can be. Dogs and cats should be living together soon what with the topsy turvy nature of the NFL this year.

This week is debate week number one and this is where the clear political home stretch of the campaign for the Presidency will be won. It’s hard to lie about someone when they are standing right there. We’ll have lists of what we would like to see out of both candidates when they face off in Mississippi.