Showing posts with label Florida primary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida primary. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Contrary to MSM's contention, while I'm neither an Undecided, Early, Hispanic or I-4 voter, it looks like I "may hold key" to 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary

Wall Street Journal video: Florida Tea Party to Vote Against Mitt Romney. January 31, 2012. http://youtu.be/6V1muYp0bGU

Contrary to MSM's contention, while I'm neither an Undecided, Early, Hispanic or I-4 voter, it looks like I "may hold key" to the 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary. I am definitely NOT undecided.



Before I leave to go cast my ballot in today's Florida primary, can I please make two quick points about ALL the very bad reporting that I've seen the past year, nationally and in Florida, along the lines of "What's new with the Tea Party?"

First, in a large grass-roots movement that is intentionally decentralized, in large part because so many of its supporters have regular lives, jobs and family responsibilities, and do NOT have a taxpayer-paid PR flack like members of Congress to arrange sit-downs with reporters, the news media's insistence that any story about the Tea Party, esp. one that is filmed, involve a conversation with a purported "leader" is especially problematic.

Problematic since 99.9% of the people within that particular state who support the movement in a general way, likely have never heard of this person interviewed.
And frankly, in many cases, it makes them wonder why if this bottom-up point is so well understood by them, and is actually part of its appeal to them and many others, i.e. effort over ego, why does this person in the news video -any video- seem so unaware of the central tenet of the movement and unwilling to say so during the interview.
Is it simply the way the piece is edited they wonder?

And so it is today in this Wall Street Journal video at the top of the post.

Why does the MSM persist in expending so much time and energy looking for someone that is simply not there? 
There's no Tea Party Oz behind the curtain.

Certainly many liberals want to believe that there is, despite all the evidence to the contrary,  because this fits into their mindset that,
a.) people who think differently than they do are clearly sheep being led around by someone else that the sheep are too stupid to see for themselves,
b.) they'll have a face in particular to hate and a person to write snarky comments about in newspaper and blog reader comments at 2 a.m., when they can't get their venom out of their system and fall asleep.

You see this more and more frequently all over the blogosphere and on YouTube, when you see the time stamp next to their remarks, that is to say, when they aren't posting meet-up times and locales for their local Occupy Wall Street protests, on news stories that have nothing to do with it.

Second, Tea Party supporters are the main reason that the GOP took over the U.S. House of Representatives in the election of November 2010, NOT some grass roots movement that desperately wanted to see much more of uninspiring, charisma-challenged, Cincinnati tear-jerker John Boehner appearing on Sunday morning TV chat shows.

In the process, they defeated many of the few remaining moderate House Democratic incumbents -some of whom I'd met- and elected many conservative Republicans in districts that weren't necessarily leaning GOP, but had gotten past the goal line because of a larger-than-expected Tea Party turnout.

This, of course, also had the practical effect of making the Democratic Party in Washington MUCH more liberal and less able to keep itself tethered to reality, given that the most liberal Democratic members of Congress also have long had the advantage of being able to run from gerrymandered districts.
Unlike most of the Dems who lost, who'd previously won elections in either Neutral or Leans GOP districts, but had somehow found a way to win, either personality, experience or campaign fundraising.

But that momentous election was just 15 months ago, not 15 years ago, yet judging by many of the news stories I've seen and read, there's literally an army of reporters and columnists who have been waiting to declare the Tea Party moment dead or dying, because...
Well, they can't point to anything specifically, but they keep telling us that they 'feel' it.
They were especially keen on mentioning this during the Fifteen Minutes of Occupy Wall Street a few months ago.

The problem is that there is not a national election for Tea Party supporters to weigh-in on for another nine months, and it's as predictable as hurricane warnings in late August down here that lots of well-known liberal columnists and Beltway pundits will be talking about the Tea Party being dead without any tangible evidence, other than them simply wanting it so.
But don't you actually need elections first before you do post-election analysis?

No, for them, their intuition is enough.

Monday, January 30, 2012

National & Florida MSM reach unanimity: Undecided voters, Early voters, Hispanic voters, Anglo voters, I-4 voters and Older voters "may hold key" to 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary


Newt Gingrich campaign video: Newt Gingrich discusses "the Facts and Florida" on his campaign bus with Greta Van Sustern of Fox News. January 28, 2012. http://youtu.be/mpOg027vWp4
National and Florida Mainstream Media reach unanimity: Undecided voters, Early voters, Hispanic voters, Anglo voters, I-4 voters and Older voters "may hold key" to 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary."
Gee, thanks for clearing that up!
Who did they leave out, left-handed blue-eyed Veterans?

Last weekend I watched Meet the Press for the first time in a long time when it first airs instead of the early morning encore on MSNBC.

It was an embarrassing spectacle that I think would've made the late Tim Russert fume, since more than anything, he liked genuine competition!
That alone separates him from what seems to be the majority of the American MSM in the year 2012.

Meet the Press played the role of elite Beltway MSM and Obama-backer to the nth degree, had guests struggle to out-do one another in their predictions of their dread of Newt Gingrich as nominee -less-than-24 hours after he won the South Carolina primary.

The Republican National Convention in Tampa isn't until the end of August, so how about taking a chill pill on the forecasting and simply let the process play itself out instead of constantly gazing into your crystal ball?
But in the year 2012, the MSM don't want to leave the elections results up to mere voters.

(And really, despite all the undue attention he's received of late because he used to be a member, the last time I checked, nobody in Florida was saying how much they missed seeing smarmy Joe Scarborough in Congress.
And honestly, for what it's worth, I don't know a single person who watches his MSNBC show due to its smug shallowness, even fair-minded liberals I know.
They're either watching C-SPAN or driving to work or on a train to work somewhere.

MSNBC's programming is like a well-appointed tree-house, except the kids that nobody on the block likes have it in their backyard, so nobody wants to be in it save the unpopular kids who are eager to be there under any circumstances, and who thus try to make it seem more important than it is  It's actually pretty funny, but unintentionally so.)

And did I mention yet that the MTP telecast, airing the day after South Carolina's primary and in advance of the Florida primary, had ZERO guests on from South Carolina or Florida?
Really.

The roles that once upon a time under Tim Russert might've seen then-Miami Herald political editor Tom Fiedler or someone from The State newspaper on, dispensing some carefully-rehearsed nugget of insight for the rest of the country to make sense of, instead had dopey Katy Kay of BBC America on as a guest, a past target of much-deserved criticism here on the blog.

Kay, who from what I have seen and heard of her in the many, many years since she was first stationed over here -and used to be on The Diane Rehm Show on WAMU a little too much when I listened to her show everyday at work in Washington- has seemingly NOT challenged the Conventional Wisdom since she took her A-Levels.
She hardly ever says anything that is not entirely predictable based upon her past.
If you can believe this, after only two states had participated, and with more absentee ballot requests from Florida than all the cast votes in Iowa and New Hampshire combined, David Gregory and his guests actually raised the issue of "favorite son" candidates and "brokered conventions."
Talk about putting the cart before the horse... Jesus, it's not even the end of January!

You can just imagine what they would say as football analysts at halftime.
Yes, that the team leading by a field goal at the half is the "inevitable" winner.
But there's a reason we play four quarters in a game not two, especially for the Super Bowl of U.S. politics.

Not surprisingly, the assembled geniuses on the set could NEVER quite explain why GOP voters in upcoming states, especially those who are unhappy with the establishment of both parties, would find voting for an establishment favorite son candidate a better alternative than voting for someone who is, you know, ACTUALLY running for President.

It seems counter-intuitive, right, but they never explained.
And that's what passes for news analysis these days!

The track record of the Beltway-based GOP Establishment that Mitt Romney is joined-to-the hip to -or alternatively, has made a blood pact with- especially when it comes to picking congressional candidates the last few years when personal or health matters have led to 'special elections,' is NOT an encouraging sign.

But for Beltway media elites, the non-candidate is preferable to an energized and emboldened Newt Gingrich who consistently articulates why he believes fundamental social and fiscal changes will be necessary to get this country moving again, and out of its deep psychological funk.



Newt Gingrich campaign video: Sarah Palin: Newt Best Candidate to Articulate Ideas and Solutions for GOP. January 28, 2012.
http://youtu.be/FTRqc9Sq-vs


Remember when one of the cherished-if-cliched notions of American journalism was the news media challenging the establishment and the-haves?
I know, I know -it's a case of collective hysterical amnesia


Today, if David met Goliath, the MSM would not only be picking Goliath, they'd be openly rooting for him and tut-tutting David's "incivility."
Then, they'd tell David that Goliath's victory was, yes, "inevitable" and he ought to just give-up.
This sycophantic mentality of the news media rooting for the establishment and the-haves instead of the upstart, has been rapidly making its way into the sporting press for the past 20 years.


As I've stated here previously, you see it clearly when nationally-known TV and print sportscasters, reporters and columnists all claim they want to see some upsets before the NCAA basketball tourney actually starts, but once they have to reveal who they select to make it to the Final Four, far too many pick 'all chalk' because what they really want is the status quo to reign. Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Ohio State... so very predictable.
Like their political brethren, they can't think outside-the-box, just ask Virginia Commonwealth University.


If everything goes as expected, I'll likely have some photos and maybe even some video here on the blog tomorrow of election activities taking place here in Broward County, and maybe some other places, too.
Weather forecast hereabouts is mostly sunny with a 100% chance of the MSM raining on Newt and being eager to count him out if he doesn't win Florida tomorrow.


But if he loses, and were foolish enough to listen to the news media experts who say he should then drop out, what do we need THEM for until after the end of August?
Exactly. 


-----
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/index.html

Be careful what you wish for, MSM. If Gingrich loses in Florida, you'll get standoffish Romney to talk about for 9 MONTHS straight; funny negative campaign ads



Winning Our Future PAC video: Obama's Dream Debate, Part 1, January 17, 2012. http://youtu.be/mv078A36t7Y


More Winning Our Future PAC videos at: http://www.youtube.com/user/WinningOurFuture

If you think that Mitt Romney doesn't like the national news media now, i.e. the Mainstream Media, and their questions he doesn't want to answer truthfully -the very questions that Newt Gingrich has been asking and that Romney SHOULD have had the answers for 6 years ago if he wanted to be taken seriously by me and others, but STILL DOESN'T have- wait until Romney knows that he can ignore the MSM until the Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay in seven months.
Yes, sweltering late August in Florida, the sweet spot for hurricane season.

The point of this pro-Newt Gingrich ad above could hardly be clearer.
The folks at the Winning Our Future PAC who support Newt Gingrich are gazing into their crystal ball and not having to break a sweat to predict that Mitt Romney, having been the very portrait of a liberal Republican as governor of Massachusetts, will fail to be able to contrast himself sharply enough with President Obama on a few key issues, and once they have erased that supposed difference, le déluge.
The rationale of Romney candidacy disappears.


Seriously, why would you expect Obama's campaign team NOT to make a comparative ad in the future that questions Romney's bona fides, essentially asking voters who agree with the idea of Obabacare to keep the person who already thinks that way and who is already president, rather than vote for Obama Lite?


Not that this line of argument will appeal to most well-informed Independents, who by and large are leaning against Obama's re-election, or even to me, but Obama's campaign staff already knows that I won't vote for him; I'm not his target audience.
It's the number one rule of politics: know your universe.


I'm smart enough to know that Obama won't change course.
But you know who are his target of those sort of ads?


Squishy middle-aged Democratic women in urban areas, esp. single Jewish women under 55.
Also, under-30 singles with a college education and likely few serious financial cares.
People who will once again NOT hold Obama's awful track record against him, and give him the benefit of the doubt.


And let's face it, in this country, right now, there are a lot of people who never learn their lesson, and who continue to keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and who thereby becoming willing victims.


Who do you think is watching all those seriously unfunny TV sitcoms (see CBS' show Two Broke Girls below) or who continue to patronize Jennifer Anniston's never-ending string of unfunny and cringe-worthy rom-coms that fall flat?



CBS-TV video: 2 Broke Girls: Facebook Friends. September 30, 2011.
http://youtu.be/iRL0QXLFGV4
(Seriously, could the forced laughter on this video possibly be any more cringe-worthy? Last summer, one of my sisters, who has very different TV & film tastes than me, saw a preview of the show while visiting Las Vegas. She said that she was dumbfounded at how unfunny it was, yet a few people there laughed like hyenas. I'll bet I can guess who they voted for in 2008, that is, IF they voted. I can't be the only person in the country who watches the preceding CBS show, How I Met Your Mother, and then flips over to cable news or ESPN for thirty minutes while this awful show is on.)    


Who? Yes, that same Obama 2012 target audience, which includes many if not most of the under-45 demo who voted for Obama in 2008 and thereby got played. 


Obama's team is only too happy to take the vote of such dummies before they wise-up, knowing that he will NOT feel encumbered by norms of reasonableness or having to run again. More Obama is MORE Obama being Obama.


But a lot of people like the ones I described above will think he will be different in a second term.
"He'll change" they tell themselves to allay their fears.
If that's what it takes to get their vote, Obama's campaign team will find an ad that spins that faux message to snag their vote. 


That's why a funny negative campaign ad like the one at the top of this post works so well -it's all-too true!
The antidote to Romney's negative campaigning is laughter, mockery and stone-cold facts
of truth.


Unfortunately, that only works when both campigns have the same resources, but here in Florida, Romney is outspending Gingrich on TV by a factor of 5:1.
-----

Almost four years later, this Saturday Night Live skit about John McCain and negative advertising is STILL funny, esp. Bill Hader's sarcastic voice!


Saturday Night Live video: McCain Approves Open.
2008 skit of Sen. McCain approving truth-enhanced negative campaign messages, with Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Darrell Hammond as U.S. Senator John McCain and Bill Hader as the creepy-yet-effective VO announcer.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Jeffrey Lord dissects a Romney hit-job on Gingrich: Elliot Abrams' revisionist hit-job at NRO is debunked by simple facts the MSM didn't care about




POLITICO video: Jim Vandehei on the anti-Newt attacks. January 27, 2012
http://bcove.me/nx4mo74a
Jeffrey Lord dissects a Romney hit-job on Gingrich: Elliot Abrams' revisionist hit-job in NRO is debunked by simple facts the MSM didn't care about
Glad to see that at least someone in this country is doing their homework and fact-checking the "facts." Especially the "inconvenient" facts that the MSM is too busy to look at before throwing them out into the ether. 

But first, here's the predicate:

National Review Online
Gingrich and Reagan 
In the 1980s, the candidate repeatedly insulted the president.
By Elliott Abrams
Posted online January 25, 2012 4:00 a.m.

Which led to my post of yesterday re Newt Gingrich and specifically, Rush Limbaugh's observations, and this from today, from which the video at the top of this post appeared:

POLITICO

Drudge, conservative media criticize Newt Gingrich
It’s as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours decided Gingrich is for real.
By Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen
1/26/12 8:00 AM EST 
Updated: 1/27/12 7:48 AM EST

Now, here's the fact-filled retort that lays bare the lies.

The American Spectator
The Spectacle blog
Elliott Abrams Caught Misleading on Newt
By Jeffrey Lord
Posted online January 27, 2012 11:28 a.m.
As Ronald Reagan used to say: Well.
Yesterday we took note of former Reagan State Department official Elliott Abrams' piece over at NRO that went after Newt Gingrich on his relationship with Reagan. While voting regularly with Reagan as a young congressman from Georgia, Gingrich, claimed Abrams, "often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides and his policies to defeat Communism." Abrams then goes on to cite " a famous floor statement Gingrich made on March 21, 1986."
Or sort of cites it. 
Read the rest of this spot-on post at:
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/27/elliott-abrams-caught-misleadi




Newt Gingrich campaign video: Ed Rollins: Gingrich was one of "most important players and most loyal to Ronald Reagan." January 27, 2012

http://youtu.be/SjOMMweAJ_s


Yes, The American Spectator that was started in Bloomington and which later moved to Arlington County, VA, just like me. In fact, for years, it was right near the Metro train station I used everyday, the Clarendon Metro, home of all those delicious Vietnamese restaurants I dearly miss, like Queen Beehttp://spectator.org/


When I lived and worked in the Evanston/Chicago area in the pre-Internet mid-1980's, I always purchased a copy of TAS (and The Washington Monthly) every month at the  Chicago-Main newsstand to see stories and columns about heretofore unknown issues, long-simmering grudges and policy flights-of-fancy in Washington and the country that I didn't see elsewhere.


Not that I always agreed with everything, but just like manhattan, inc. and SPY, my two favorite magazines, which I was also a charter subscriber to, their contributors writing was so spirited and fun that, sometimes, not always, it was easier to just believe rather than to fight it. 


That was where I first got large doses of Michael Barone's prescient insight, which he now dishes from The Washington Examiner.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/author/michael-barone
and Real Clear Politics
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/michael_barone/
and TownHall
http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/
and National Review Online, where he has this piece today:

Gearing Up to Govern 
The GOP candidates are more serious about governing than is the incumbent.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/289283/gearing-govern-michael-barone

Below, the new-and-improved version via Google Maps of the newsstand, long the best on The North Shore, that re-opened in 2001, after apparently vanishing for 8 years because of the CTA and city of Evanston being unable to get their acts together for the benefit of the area's residents. Eight years!
http://www.citynewsstand.com/progressupdate.htm



View Larger Map


Thursday, January 26, 2012

Bob Dole, remember him? Worst GOP Presidential nominee in memory, his White House chances laughed at openly by the Mainstream Media weeks BEFORE the election, now criticizes Newt Gingrich. Another GOP Establishment lobbyist for Romney to add to his collection!



CBS News video: CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. Dean Reynolds reports on "Gingrich feeling heat from GOP Establishment." January 26, 2012.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7396509n

Bob Dole, remember him? 
Worst GOP Presidential nominee in memory, his chances laughed at openly by the Mainstream Media weeks BEFORE the election, now criticizes Newt Gingrich.
Yes, Bob Dole, the most over-rated member of Congress of the past thirty years, not that it ever stopped his pals in the Beltway news media from the logrolling after he became a lobbyist.


Try this simple amateur detective assignment yourself.
Each day ask five people who don't follow politics as deeply as you do, "Who ran against Bill Clinton in 1996?"

Give them ten seconds to answer, with no clues.
Do this for a month.
The gaping silence you hear, there's your evidence!

Yes, the same person who talked openly about "Democratic wars" in the 1976 Vice-Presidential debate.
Bob Dole.
And yet he ran for president only 16 years ago...
Just saying...

If you saw the CBS Evening News segment tonight that dealt with the Beltway's GOP Establishment falling-in behind Mitt Romney and attacking Newt Gingrich - especially the once-familiar Republican names who for years have been making lots of money from leveraging their connections!- it's not for nothing that their interview was with one of the the poster boys for the old GOP Establishment who resented Newt's tight personal connection with younger members and who have fought the Tea Party tooth-and-nail the past two years: Bob Dole.


And did you notice that nowhere in the piece did the reporter mention how what Bob Dole did after he left office?
Lobbying.
Surprise!

I listened to Rush Limbaugh for about two hours today, including when he said this...
Coordinated Avalanche Against Newt Doesn't Match My Memory of Reagan Years
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/01/26/coordinated_avalanche_against_newt_doesn_t_match_my_memory_of_reagan_years



Dole assails Gingrich in plea to conservatives
Posted by CNN's Kevin Liptak
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/26/dole-assails-gingrich-in-plea-to-conservatives/

And did you notice that nowhere in the piece did reporter Dean Reynolds mention how what Bob Dole did after he left office?
Lobbying.


Seriously, look at who these former GOP congressmen supporting Romney are... Vin Weber, Susan Molinari... 
A largely-forgettable Minnesota Republican and a not-too-bright-but-cute daughter of a longtime Staten Island GOP congressman, who played her feisty thirty-something Mom Congresswoman shtick to the hilt? And then some!
(She later turned being cute-and-precious with a smile into a ticket to host a network TV news program -another CBS News debacle.)


NOT exactly the people who were doing the heavy lifting to make the GOP Revolution of 1994 possible.
In fact, Weber retired in 1992 to... well, lobby.
And after Molinari left CBS and had another kid... well, since 2001, she's been a lobbyist.
What a coincidence!

Seriously, would anyone outside of New York in those pre-Internet days have ever talked about Molinari if Newt hadn't personally led the GOP takeover in 1994, when she'd been in Congress for all of two terms? 
In a word, no.


I was there.
I knew people who knew them, some who liked them and those who didn't, all who had some degree of insight into them and their ilk.
Which is why i ask you simply, quick, name one accomplishment of significance for either Weber or Molinari before 1994 that anyone has ever heard of?
Exactly.
Just saying... 


And if you're one of those few people out there in the blogosphere who think you've heard it all and seen it all before, but didn't know about this story, which I first heard about when I lived and worked in the Washington area, you might want to consider this as a mitigating factor in Molinari's feelings about Newt Gingrich.


The bitter backstory between Newt Gingrich and Romney backer, Susan Molinari
Posted by Marc Caputo on January 18, 2012
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/the-bitter-backstory-between-newt-gingrich-and-romney-backer-susan-molinari.html


Hmm-m... Vin Weber -lobbyist. Susan Molinari -lobbyist. Bob Dole -lobbyist.
Sort of makes you wonder why they don't form a PAC called GOP Silver Spoon Lobbyists for Romney.
They don't, of course, because they don't need to as long as Mitt's Super PAC is around buying up all the air time it can swallow


Dole's comments were almost as laughable as Bob Schieffer's tonight.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57367151/schieffer-modern-american-politics-is-vulgar/?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea

Do you recall what Schieffer said after Barack Obama's infamous comments in 2008 while in San Francisco about residents of Pennsylvania became public, an incident that I referenced the other day?


Bob Schieffer said nothing about those vulgar and condescending remarks.
Say sayonara, Bob.
Just saying...
-----
I found this after writing the above but it still made me laugh nonetheless...

A question we’ve never posed and likely no one outside of CBS News has ever considered: “We wondered what Bob Schieffer thinks of all of this?” 

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2012/01/26/appalled-schieffer-blasts-vulgar-and-rude-brewer-we-re-better-people

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

One week from Florida GOP primary, Mainstream Media & Florida's own MSM continue to coddle Ron Paul, and NOT force him to answer self-evident questions re Florida; Ron Paul is missing-in-action



Both the national Mainstream Media & Florida's own MSM continue to coddle Ron Paul and NOT force him to answer self-evident questions, and thus be held accountable.

Paul has not won any of the first three contests and is NOT running a serious campaign in Florida, the fourth-largest state in the country.

As I've written here a few times previously, I was not only born in Texas, I'm a direct descendant of a pioneer Texas Hill Country family that has lived there continuously for well over over 155 years.


And just as the entire country is NOT a small-scale replica of everyday life in Manhattan or Santa Monica, despite what Hollywood and Madison Avenue marketers and network TV execs may attempt to persuade us in films and in television programs and commercials, the entire country is also NOT the south suburban Houston area that is Ron Paul's own congressional district, TX-14.
Map: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=TX&district=14


Voters in Florida next Tuesday, like voters in Iowa and New Hampshire the past few weeks and the upcoming state primaries, quite reasonably believe that they're entitled to be represented by a person as president who at least ATTEMPTS to understand their unique concerns and issues, and who takes those into account when setting national policies and making important decisions.

Given that, how does Ron Paul's failure to even mount a serious effort in Florida to garner their votes, failure to even pretend to try to understand THEIR unique concerns instead of merely repeating his own, now make him a person Floridians should take seriously, now or in the future?

And isn't Paul's behavior towards Florida voters more accurately described as patronizing?
To answer my own question, yes.


So how come nobody in the traveling national press corps or Florida-based news media, print or electronic, will ask them that simple question on camera?
Sometimes, as we've learned, the absence of evidence is evidence of a sort, too, isn't it?


But you don't have to take my word for Paul's patronizing attitude toward Florida voters. 
Let me directly quote the Tampa Bay Times' Alex Leary in their Buzz politics blog today under the headline, Florida presidential primary tracker for Tuesday
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/florida-presidential-primary-tracker-tuesday
Ron Paul: No events scheduled.
Ron Paul is missing-in-action.
Res ipsa loquitur.


And when, exactly, does Ron Paul actually WIN a state primary election?
WHEN?
Name that state?

http://elections.nytimes.com/2012


That's a question that mouthy and opinionated Paul supporters can't or won't answer, for obvious reasons, so when you run into them in-person on see them on TV news segments on the cablenets or C-SPAN sounding loftier than they have any right to sound based on what's actually happened, ask them that simple question.


And tell them that after Paul has ACTUALLY WON SOMETHING, to get get back in-touch, but otherwise, stop annoying everyone with their nonsensical conspiracies about how someone who can't even win a single state presidential primary can be elected president in the year 2012. 
Sorry, it's not the 19th Century anymore. 


It's preposterous.


The truth of the matter is that Paul won't even be able to win the Texas GOP primary on April 3rd.    

Since we don't have a parliamentary system, an American president, whatever else they need to be or do, MUST be seen by both Americans and people overseas as the president of the entire country, not just the small parts of it that happen to agree with him.
And if it's not too much trouble, NOT appear to be overly-contemptuous and dismissive of other Americans.



Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton responds to Barack Obama's recorded comments at a San Francisco fundraiser about residents of small towns in Pennsylvania being "bitter." "Small towns cling to guns or religion" April 2008. http://youtu.be/xNoJ0q6HrK8
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Obama_on_smalltown_PA_Clinging_religion_guns_xenophobia.html


In my view, that's one of President Obama's chief (and unsolvable) problems -he doesn't.
Repeating that same mistake with someone else is NOT a reasonable solution to our current problems.


Pied Piper Ron Paul, go sell crazy somewhere else.
We've already got more than enough of that here in Florida.
-----
Central Florida Political Pulse politics blog of the Orlando Sentinel:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/


The Buzz politics blog of the Tampa Bay Times
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/

http://www.c-span.org/Campaign2012/

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Newt Gingrich's delicious win in South Carolina will soon flood Florida with Beltway reporters who will ask hard questions about state's Romney-loving GOP Establishment -unlike FL's own MSM


Winning Our Future video: Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins: Mitt Romney Wasn't Conservative Until He Ran For President. January 21, 2012.
http://youtu.be/qvM64Wl5yNo


Being a Newt Gingrich supporter who expected last night's result- and who predicted as much to many of you weeks ago in emails- and feeling and thinking as I do, I can hardly wait until we start seeing something that's been strangely missing from campaign coverage in Florida.


What's been MIA are fact-filled articles and columns in Florida newspapers, segments on evening network TV newscasts, and pithy posts on knowing nationally-read blogs, on what Florida's GOP Establishment of elected officials and pooh-bahs who endorsed John Huntsman and Rick Perry for president -or desperately wished for Jeb Bush!- are going to be doing over the next ten days to try to rehabilitate their greatly-damaged reputation and image within the state, given how badly that has  worked out for some of them. 


Especially some of the unctuous ones I, well, personally dislike, many of whom have that whole Silver Spoon thing going on that makes them seem even more phony and detached from reality than you-know-who.


Will they now suck-up to and salute the GOP Beltway/Northeast Establishment and now support Mitt Romney?
Well, what do you think?!!!


And speaking of Silver Spoons, or more factually, Sons of Silver Spoons, when are we going to start seeing some in-depth newspaper articles and columns in the Miami Herald, Tampa Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Tallahassee Democrat, Orlando Sentinel -i.e. the Florida Mainstream Media that creates the state's Conventional Wisdom out of froth that's so often wrong- on what Mitt Romney supporters like Lighter-than-Lite Connie Mack the Quatro are going to ACTUALLY DO to turn around Romney's slumping prospects here?


No, not what his father, the former Florida Senator with the same name will strongly suggest, what will the young U.S. Senate wannabe Quatro himself DO?


You know, something concrete and tangible to prove that they are not all just well-known drones in the state's not-too-bright and all-too self-serving political hype machine that is also Home Sweet Home along the I-4 Corridor?
Something besides just recommending that he spend more money on ads?
Hmm-m...


(I mean, if Mack's really that formidable a candidate, and those polls numbers we've seen for weeks aren't just name ID numbers, as I've always argued they were, we ought to start seeing something from him right away, right? 
And not just in the usual places?!
Me, well, as you know from my past posts, I think Mack has a glass jaw and I will NOT vote for him. I greatly prefer Adam Hasner hands down.)


Some of us will be watching very, very carefully.


The state's journos better figure it out damn quick, because with a few exceptions I can name, it's crystal clear that the vast majority of Florida-based TV and print reporters WONT suddenly develop a spine and become responsible.


WON'T be forthright enough to question the previously-swallowed Conventional Wisdom of the Romney "Inevitability" argument," or write articles that dare to ask in their headlines "Can Connie Mack IV actually help deliver Florida for Romney, or will he fail?," there is a veritable army of print and TV reporters based in the Beltway and the Northeast U.S. that are about to start invading the Sunshine State on Monday morning to do just that, and ask questions the state's journos have largely refused to ask, despite the fact that it's low-hanging fruit indeed.


And if you think the Beltway/Northeast MSM won't take advantage of the chance to get away from cold weather for a week, forget it...



Excerpt from the iconic early 1980's Florida Dept. of Tourism TV ad - "When You Need It Bad We've Got It Good"
Old-style tourism ad rules!!


This was by far the most-successful tourism campaign for the state ever.
When I was attending IU, there wasn't anyone I knew there who didn't know this ad and who couldn't sing or hum the jingle.


Which, naturally enough, leads to this classic that was marketing genius... 
every week.



CBS-TV's The Jackie Gleason Show -open (color, late 1960's)
http://youtu.be/E4b_-iwJwic
Yes, back when South Florida seemed magical and sophisticated to 7-year old me living in Memphis!