Showing posts with label Alex Sink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex Sink. Show all posts

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!


Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!



Political insiders say Sen. Bill Nelson likely to win third term
By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor
In Print: Sunday, December 25, 2011

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/political-insiders-say-sen-bill-nelson-likely-to-win-third-term/1207786

It's like a poll of national sports writers in Miami in the days before Super Bowl III that overwhelmingly favored the Baltimore Colts over the New York Jets, the Georgetown Hoyas over the Villanova Wildcats in the 1985 NCAA basketball tourney.
And how did you like last season's World Series between the Red Sox and the Phillies, the pre-ordained classic that never was?
Who actually had the Packers over the Steelers in the Super Bowl before the 2010 season started?
(You'll recall that my prediction before the game was spot-on.)

Dear reader of the blog, whose attention and time at this first post of the year I appreciate, please tell me when since 9/11 has there ever been a poll of elites and insiders in this country or this state or this county where the unexpected was accurately predicted?
Even when there were plenty of signs that something unexpected could well happen?
Precisely.

The sports analogy is nationally-known print sports writers and TV reporters appearing on nationally-syndicated sports talk radio shows of the sort that I have been listening to since I was a kid in the 1970's -just like I did with Tony Kornheiser's Washington, D.C.  radio program for WTEM-AM in the '90's before he was at ESPN- listening to them opine on the NCAA basketball tourney selections in the days before the tourney starts.


They're clearly eager to hear guests offering insight into possible upcoming upsets for the benefit of their listeners or viewers, but almost invariably, the host or co-hosts then ignore everything that's been said, heard and seen -and history- by then picking nothing but 'chalk,' i.e. picking nothing but the top-seeded teams.


Yes, despite every one's always saying that they want something unexpected, look what happens when "experts" are asked and results have consequences?

That's a pretty common 'phenomena' in contemporary U.S. sports media that you rarely hear anyone discuss or criticize, and it's political counterpart is equally common at almost every national and Florida-based newspaper and media website worth perusing, even the good ones.


It's a real buzz-kill, and in my opinion is one of the main reasons that few big political movements happen down here as spontaneously as they do in other parts of the country -the news media here really isn't interested in change, and cover and report accordingly, rather than let the narrative and natural ebb-and flow of events tell the tale.


This explains, in part, why the national news media write as if they would like Newt Gingrich to be finished after the Iowa Caucus this coming week, despite all the larger states he leads in, like Florida, for instance, despite less resources than Mitt Romney.

In short, the news media really doesn't want change, they just want the pretense that change could happen, which is why the voters who DO want big change are so frustrated by the news media's bias.
It's not just a political bias on the part of some reporters, though it IS that, but also a bias towards what they already know, understand and can explain, which is why so much political reporting is derivative to a nauseating degree.

That's another reason I'm in favor of having an election system like Louisiana's, where all the candidates run together and the general election is between the top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation.
(I know there's a name for this system but I'm too tired to think of the name of it.)

Now THAT would be fun and reward the voters with an election worth watching and get more sensible people in office, and be a handy tool for dealing with gerrymandering.
Imagine what gerrymandered districts would be like in South Florida under a system like this -less extremism of the left or right.


Florida voters across the state that I've been in touch with since this most recent post on the insider's poll continue to shake their heads in wonder as the old St. Petersburg Times and their reporters and columnists continue flogging a series of stories with a never-ending story-line about their poll of "political insiders" favoring incumbents in 2012.
Really?
Imagine that?

Of course they do!
And so do the state's print and electronic media thru their mostly bad and superficial coverage, too!
Which, of course, is part of the problem, no? 

The very same elites, "insiders" and news media that thought they would have Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio to play with -like a cat's toy- for a few months, with Rubio playing the role of well-chewed rubber mouse?


After all, hadn't these same forces already publicly proclaimed Charlie Crist a political genius, month-after-month, for 'splitting the difference,' despite the lack of any empirical evidence that held up to serious scrutiny, that he had fundamentally changed the broken and much-loathed political culture of Tallahassee, south Georgia's anti-Mayberry?
Yes.

Evidence, who needs tangible evidence that anything was changing for the better in Tallahassee when the state's news media was in love the way the Florida news media was in
full-thrall to Charlie Crist and his affable white hair in 2009 and early 2010?

Yes, Florida, the Sunshine State, where the then-formerly popular governor Crist lost that Senate GOP primary that the Sunshine State's Mainstream Media and political elites had considered a mere formality, having already been writing newspaper stories/columns and filing TV stories for months that took the position that he was "inevitable."


So "inevitable," in fact, that the state's news media actually started filing stories on whether Crist might soon be a GOP VP candidate, a pseudo-fact that because it was printed in Florida newspapers so often, started appearing more frequently in DC-based media, blogs and websites as well, where they didn't know any better.
(The Beltway pundits assumed the reporters here in Florida must know what they were talking about, and had some sources who knew it was true.)

And all of this MONTHS before the formality of an actual election
After all, the MSM and political elites would know, wouldn't they, they're "experts"?


And besides, as they were always keen on reminding us, Florida is SO important.
Except when it's not.
But they were 100% wrong and Marco Rubio trounced Crist in the GOP primary.

And then, not willing to accept the mandate of the people, the elites of both parties and many columnists and editorial boards decided that Crist should be given yet another chance to win, not just one, so millions were given to him by the comfortable status quo-types who reminded us over-and-over that despite his loss to Rubio, Crist was still the best candidate.

Then in November, Rubio trounced Crist for yet a second time, and made hapless Democratic Party nominee Kendrick Meek a third-place finisher in a three-way race, and a very bad third place at that.

Yes, Florida, the same state where the only statewide-elected Democrat in the FL Cabinet,
a multi-millionaire, former banking executive and longtime Democratic insider who was married to a wealthy attorney and former Democratic gubernatorial nominee, lost the gubernatorial race to a wealthy businessman who had never run for elective office before.


Losing in some part because she never did the one thing that all good elected officials must do -explain who they are, what they've done, what they are in favor of and against and why.
That is a necessity.


But Alex Sink and her political advisers and the Democratic Party, esp. the most liberal wind of that shrinking party, took all that for granted, as did most of the state's news media.

But finally someone started noticing what I had seen from the beginning -that she really was running for office in the worst possible way.
By late August and early September, reports started appearing in newspapers -but not on Miami-area TV- that her campaign had been done such a poor job of laying the groundwork explaining who she was and her stand on issues, that, surprise, there were still many voters who did not know that Alex Sink was a woman.

When you are running for governor of the fourth largest state in the country and three months before the general election, a sizable number of likely voters don't know what sex you are, you are poised for a bruising losing effort.
And that was when Rick Scott's TV campaign started in earnest of defining the woman who had been so blase that she and her staff thought that could wait until after the summer.

And the same elites and reporters were reporting for months that in a re-match now...
Sink would win.
But we don't have do-overs  a few months after the election, we just have the election.
Scott, a very flawed candidate, beat Sink, a very apathetic and blase candidate who didn't do the minimum required.

I ignore those stories for some of the same reasons that I voted against Sink, knowing that no matter how close the election might be or how much the news media, esp. the liberal news media in South Florida, wanted to play tail gunner for Sink and get Scott in a game of "gotcha," Sink was a seriously flawed person and candidate who was incapable of moving the football in Tallahassee and get the state out of its backwardness in so many areas.

Knowing that both branches of the state legislature are held by the GOP, and veto-proof if sink won, what could Sink possibly accomplish as governor given how  self-evident her personality and management flaws were?
She'd continually have been made a fool of as the legislature over-rode any vetoes she might made, even when I might have agreed with her reasoning.

To say the least, Alex Sink was not much of a gubernatorial candidate, and it's my guess that she would have been a terrible governor for the fourth-largest state in the country, even when she was right on the issue, because her personality and manner would NOT have worn well with residents.
In that election for governor between too very flawed candidates, we drew the well-meaning "Joker" who at least knew who he was, and we all have to live with that verdict for another three years.

Now, eleven months until the 2012 election, the same state "insiders" and experts I've described are alternately pre-ordaining Bill Nelson's re-election and/or the rise of some queer boomlet called the Connie Mack revolution.


To my way of thinking, where ideas -thoughtful and nuanced- really are important, Connie Mack is political 'fools gold' compared to Marco Rubio, who is Fort Knox in comparison, since as someone who supported Rubio from the beginning -even when state reporters were writing his premature obituary- I always knew that he was everything that Sink, Meek, Crist, Nelson and Mack are NOT.

In that comparison, to me, candidate Connie Mack is the small change you find in the shallow end of the hotel swimming pool while on summer vacation in North Carolina to escape the heat, humidity and boring existence of summertime South Florida.
(Asheville, North Carolina  1972 to be exact. A trip I've never forgotten: Mount Mitchell, Smokey Mountains, Stone Mountain, GA...)

Great for kids, like your two younger sisters, who race each other diving into the pool to get the quarters you throw, which amuses some of the other hotel guests around the pool otherwise zoning-out, but not really much to brag about for adults, or even teenagers paying close attention.

In short, there is no "there" there with Connie Mack IV.
Or any possibility of any upside that he would ever become the sort of thoughtful, savvy and sometimes counter-intuitive person that surprises you frequently with his principled stands representing the crazy-quilt of six different states cobbled into one that that is today's Florida, and able to cast important or even dire votes that will matter to this nation's future.


To me he's the personable but somewhat dis-connected high school homecoming king whose father is the mayor and largest developer in the area, and he's still milking the gravy train, occasionally doing the right thing, but not often enough to inspire either trust or respect.
To me, Connie Mack IV is NOT the answer to any reasonable question.


Like I've so often said on this blog about the city I live in, Hallandale Beach, and how it so thoroughly mis-managed to the detriment of the residents who want it to be MUCH BETTER now than it is, Mack's "An interpretive house of cards that falls apart at the slightest touch of rationality and evidence."


As for perpetually tone-deaf Alex Sink, the more things change...

Jetsetting Letter Misses Mark With Suffering Floridians
By Martin Merzer
Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Hint to newcomers -If "Broward Schools" get mentioned in the newspaper or on local TV newscasts, it's rarely if ever about educating. Sad but true...


RedBroward's video: Occupy Ft. Lauderdale protesters outside the Broward Schools HQ at 600 SE Third Avenue, a block east from the Broward County Courthouse. The protesters were marching north toward Las Olas Blvd.

Above, the video shot last week by RedBroward, the popular GOP blog and a generally good source of information, of the Motley Crew that serenaded themselves silly outside the Broward Schools HQ, home of the School Board.
Someone sent me an email head's-up about it just as I was reading some of these pieces and emailed them around the grapevine.


-----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Has Broward Teachers Union been serving best interests of rank-and-file?
Latest financial questions highlight disconnect between leadership and membership
Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist
10:20 PM EST, November 16, 2011

I got embattled Broward Teachers Union president Pat Santeramo on the phone Wednesday, but he wouldn't fall for my Bob Costas act. The normally talkative Santeramo declined comment on two state investigations into his handling of union money, or a damning internal audit that found he blew through $3.8 million in reserves and may have improperly used dues to reimburse people for political contributions.

Read the rest of the column at:

Reader comments, oldest first, at:

-----

Channel 10 News/WPLG-TV (Miami-FTL)
Bob Norman's blog
Davie Vice Mayor Involved In School Union Scandal
Names Emerging Of Those Who Were Reimbursed Political $$$
Published On: Nov 17 2011 09:16:56 AM EST Updated On: Nov 17 2011 10:10:22 AM EST

The scandal is heating up -- and that means a lot of people are lawyering up.

And it's political contributions that are at the heart of the scandal targeting the Broward Teachers Union and its president Pat Santeramo.


-----

Broward Beat
Battlin’ Board Members: One Files To Run Against Another
By Buddy Nevins

One School Board member opened a campaign against another Friday.

Katie Leach filed papers to run for the Fort Lauderdale-based seat now held by member Maureen Dinnen.

Read the rest of the post at:

-----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Davie official was reimbursed by union for campaign donation
But vice mayor later repaid the money, her attorney says
By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
5:53 PM EST, November 19, 2011

DAVIE
Vice Mayor Caryl Hattan has been swept up in the scandal surrounding the Broward Teachers Union and its beleaguered president, Pat Santeramo.

Santeramo has been accused of using union dues to reimburse 26 union staffers and their relatives for about $20,000 in campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton and failed gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink.

Hattan, a top union leader, was among the 26 reimbursed for making campaign contributions.


Read the rest of the article at:

-----
Channel 10 News/WPLG-TV (Miami-FTL)
Bob Norman's blog
Investigated BTU President Lived High Life
Pat Santeramo Made Big Money, Bought Peninsula Getaway Home
Published On: Nov 20 2011 12:28:14 AM EST
While criminally investigated Broward Teachers Union President Pat Santeramo was representing educators in attempts to get small raises on their modest pay, he was living an opulent life on their dime.

Read the rest of the post at:

-----

Channel 10 News/WPLG-TV (Miami-FTL)
Bob Norman's blog
UPDATED: Former Broward Housing Official Lawyers Up In Union Probe
Santeramo Overpaid Construction Company
Published On: Nov 21 2011 11:39:33 AM EST Updated On: Nov 21 2011 12:50:07 PM EST
Embattled Broward Teachers Union President Pat Santeramo often ran the 11,000-strong BTU in secretive fashion -- and some of the exorbitant amounts he paid to contractors remain shrouded in suspicion.
Read the rest of the post at:

Sunday, September 5, 2010

How Jennifer Carroll proves the political history of Florida isn't quite what it used to be -and neither are the news media's memories, either


To the blog readers who were kind enough to email me and ask -perhaps tongue in cheek- if I noticed that "Correction" in the Miami Herald on Friday, I did.
Actually, I noticed the mistake in the original article on Thursday, below.

-----
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/02/1803901/scotts-likely-no-2-navy-vet.html

Miami Herald

Rick Scott's likely No. 2: Navy vet
A Republican victory in November in the governor's race could produce Florida's first black lieutenant governor. Jennifer Carroll is likely to be Rick Scott's running mate
By Steve Bousquet, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
September 2, 2010

Rick Scott's running mate on the Republican ticket for governor is expected to be state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, a U.S. Navy veteran and mother of three who, if elected, would be Florida's first black lieutenant governor.

Scott will unveil his pick Thursday in a campaign fly-around beginning in Jacksonville, a major hub of Republican voters near Carroll's home in Fleming Island.

In choosing Carroll, Scott, himself a Navy veteran, would get a woman with a distinctive personal story who could neutralize the gender appeal of his Democratic opponent, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink:

In a state where one in every seven voters is black -- and nearly all are Democrats -- Carroll is a black Republican.

As a native of Trinidad, Carroll is an immigrant who could help soften Scott's hard-line image on an issue that cuts both ways in a state with a large immigrant population.

She packs a celebrity punch: Her son, Nolan II, is a rookie cornerback and kick returner for the Miami Dolphins, drafted out of the University of Maryland.

"She's an immigrant and she worked her way up and she did everything through hard work. That's very similar to Rick's background. There's a lot of similarities between the two of them,'' said Jen Baker, Scott's campaign spokesman.

Carroll, 51, made Gov. Charlie Crist's short list of possible running mates in 2006, and she was among those listed as possible successors to Mel Martinez, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat last year.

Scott's camp is aggressive in challenging what it considers off-base speculation on political blogs. When blogs named Carroll as his pick Wednesday, the campaign raised no objection.

Lieutenant governors in Florida share one common trait: obscurity. The office did not exist before 1968 and it is unique in that no job description for it exists in state law.

Strategists agree that the selection of a running mate is largely a media fixation that matters little to rank-and-file voters, unless the choice backfires.

"The first rule of a lieutenant governor candidate is to not get in trouble,'' said GOP strategist and lobbyist J.M. ``Mac'' Stipanovich. "As a candidate for governor your choice of a lieutenant governor does little for you, but this one is intriguing.''

'A GREAT MESH'

Leslie Dougher, county GOP chairwoman in Carroll's home of Clay County, praised the choice as "far-reaching.''

"It would be a great mesh,'' Dougher said. "Mr. Scott is from South Florida and Jennifer is from North Florida.''

Sink's running mate is Rod Smith, 60, a former state senator and elected state attorney from Alachua County who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006.

"I don't have time to speculate, really,'' Sink said in Miami Wednesday. ``I'm just waiting to see what his announcement is.''

BACKGROUND

Carroll moved to Florida in 1986. She and her husband, Nolan, have three children.

She became the first black Republican woman elected to the Legislature in a special election in 2003.

She retired after 20 years in the Navy, where she rose to the rank of lieutenant commander aviation maintenance officer.

She has a bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico and a master's degree in business administration from St. Leo University in Pasco County.

Her official legislative biography notes that she is a life member of both the NAACP and the National Rifle Association.

Her record is not free of blemishes, however.

Six years ago, after news reports that she listed a degree from an online ``diploma mill,'' Kensington University in California, she dropped the reference from her official resume.

"This causes me great concern,'' Carroll told the Florida Times-Union in 2004. ``It's a lot of time, effort and money poured into a university I thought was a viable program.''

Last spring, Carroll filed a bill regulating certain electronic sweepstakes games. The Times-Union reported that Carroll confirmed that her public relations firm, 3 N. and J.C. Corp., represented Allied Veterans of the World Inc., a veterans' group that sought to legalize the slot-like machines.

Carroll quickly withdrew the bill (HB 1185) and said a staff member filed the legislation without her approval.

Carroll does not have a distinguished record as a lawmaker, but has compiled a solidly pro-business voting record and was unchallenged in a bid for a fourth term this fall.

At a campaign stop in Jacksonville on Tuesday, Scott told WOKV radio he had ``pretty much'' made up his mind but would not stoke speculation about his choice.

"This person's going to do a wonderful job,'' Scott said. ``Whoever it's going to be, you guys will all be proud of.''

Carroll would not be the first black woman to run for the state's No. 2 post.

In 1978, Claude Kirk, a former Republican governor seeking a comeback as a Democrat, chose Mary Singleton as his running mate, but the Kirk-Singleton ticket fared poorly.

Times/Herald staff writer John Frank and Miami Herald staff writer Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.

-----

The case of the missing adjective.

excerpted from:
Miami Herald

Corrections
September 3, 2010

In a story Thursday on Page 1B about Republican Rick Scott's selection of Jennifer Carroll as his running mate, it incorrectly noted that she was the first black female elected to the state Legislature.
Gwen Sawyer Cherry, a Democrat from Miami, was the first African American
woman ever to serve in the Legislature. She was elected in 1970.

-----

Carroll is the first Black female Republican elected to the State House, which is why I highlighted Republican in red in the original since it wasn't there, but added online after the edition went to print.

Hmm-m-m... Gwen Cherry was also the first Black woman to practice law in Dade County, a not insignificant fact. See: http://www.gscbwla.org/cherry.htm

Obviously, I'm long past believing that all the employee cuts at the Herald are starting to have their logical negative results for their dwindling number of readers, in that they have lost people who actually know which facts are important and which are not, and can say something
when words in an article are flat-out wrong -or missing.


It will come as no surprise to most of you readers who come here often that in my opinion, the reporters in this community who don't know anything about the political history of this area or why things are the way they are, greatly out-number the ones who do.

This Thursday article is a preview of the future of South Florida media, something I notice nearly every time Miami TV reporters show up at Hollywood City Commission meetings and seem to know nothing -or next-to-nothing- about what is on the meeting agenda and what its implications might be.
So many are strangely incurious.


I don't expect them to be experts, but... well, let's just say that the amount of time some of them need to be talked to by the city's official spokesperson
Raelin Story -who is always professional and accommodating- seems to be increasing, based on what I observe.
I'm sure she notices who does their homework and is prepared, and who doesn't and isn't.

I know I do.


Jennifer Carroll's web page at the Florida House of Representatives website:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/SEctions/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4331&SessionId=42

Campaign website: http://www.scottcarrollforflorida.com/

For more on her talented son...

Miami Herald

DOLPHINS
CB Carroll embraces discipline
By David J. Neal
May 5, 2010

Here's how you know Dolphins rookie cornerback Nolan Carroll didn't grow up acting foolish, or at least didn't do so twice: he's the son of a former Navy lieutenant commander who retired after 20 years with some medals, including an "expert pistol medal."

And that was Mom, state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, the first female black Republican state representative. Dad, Nolan Carroll Sr., was an Air Force senior master sergeant.

"Ever since I came out of my mom, it was, 'yes, sir,' 'no, sir,' 'yes, ma'am,' be on time, do this, do that when I say so," said Carroll, a fifth-round draft pick. "Up to now, and I'm 23 years old, I still say, 'yes, sir,' 'no, sir.' They expect me to say it. There was very strict discipline in my house. They were also cool. They weren't always telling me what to do. They treated me like I was a grown man, as well.'

Now, Carroll is a grown man out of the Jacksonville area with an exemplary off-the-field makeup. If not for the broken leg that aborted Carroll's senior season at Maryland after two games, NFL coaches wouldn't have been in favor of drafting him, but rather adopting him.

"When you talk with the young man, he's just an impressive guy; he really is," Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. "The first time I ever met him, I was really impressed with the way he came off. Never mind how he presented himself from a football standpoint, but he had all the other things that are important to us, too."

Such as a willingness to do exactly what he is told.

"The coaches are like my parents," Carroll said. "Same thing. I do what they tell me to do. I don't back talk."

And if he disagrees with a coaching decree?

"I look down and think, 'They know what's best for me, so I'm just going to listen to what they tell me to do,' " he said.

That's one reason Carroll tries to avoid even minor violations such as breaking curfew -- he figures rules were made for a reason. Also, he's used to being in situations where any bad behavior can reflect on others.

"If my friends wanted to go and do something and I thought it was bad, I wouldn't do it," he said. "I'd stay in the house just to make sure. I didn't want to give [his mother] a bad name.

"Same with this," he continued, looking past reporters to the Dolphins' logo facing the Davie practice fields. "I treat this like a family. I treat the Miami Dolphins like it's my mom, it's my family. I don't ever want to give them a bad name."

Now, if he can play nickel cornerback without embarrassing them on the field, he might have a job.

The Dolphins believe they have found their future outside cornerbacks in 2009 rookies Sean Smith and Vontae Davis. Will Allen, who turns 32 in August with nine seasons of mileage, will be back in that competition for starting spots this year after recovering from a season-ending knee injury. But for how long? Also, the Dolphins released last year's nickel cornerback, Nate Jones.

With three-wide receiver sets becoming the norm, it's a position defenses want settled.

"One of the things that I think I want to try to do with Nolan right away is to just get him in a position where he's going to be able to get himself settled down and play because he has missed so much time," Sparano said. "I think that we are going to kind of let him get his feet set at corner right now and then take a look at some of the players that we have in there and then worry about whether we get him inside."

Carroll, who ran a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at Maryland's pro day, played against slot receivers during his sophomore season in 2007. That was his first at cornerback after spending his freshman year as a wide receiver.

"[The Dolphins] like that I'm tough and aggressive," Carroll said "I need to work just getting used to the position some more. I've only been playing it a year and a half if you don't count my senior year that I missed."

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

While Florida gubernatorial candidates talk about re-inventing the wheel, Meg Whitman says innovation, technology will be key to California's success


Meg Whitman 2010 campaign video: Meg Whitman says innovation, technology will be key to California's success  http://youtu.be/S34aTv7wNdY



Now THIS is how you make a political video that appeals to the common sense of intelligent and well-informed people who always vote: you're honest about the current economic reality and describe a plausible scenario for changing things for the better, not spouting condescending nonsensical generalities about how the economic future of the state is sunshine.
Please!


The contrast in intellectual heft and strategic focus between this
Meg Whitman video and the dim-witted TV political ads and website videos coming out of Florida could hardly be greater, and from a Florida voter's perspective, hardly more dispiriting.

I last wrote about the contrast between the gubernatorial candidates in Florida and California on July 25th:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/with-99-days-til-election-day-politico.html

I've got some blog posts coming up soon about the alternative energy approaches of
Alex Sink, Bill McCullom and Rick Scott, and to say that they are vague and unfocused is a gross understatement.
Even worse from my perspective, Sink's approach, as distilled from reading her own website and several environmental websites and blogs, seems to unduly rely on Washington largess, which is to say that she thinks that D.C. will simply give money to Florida so that pols in Tallahassee can pick-and-choose some economic winners in the alternative energy industry.

I'm going to go out on a limb(!) and say that kind of politics-as-usual approach would enrich friends, family members, past supporters and cronies of the elites in Tallahassee, but NOT the entrepreneur in South Florida that has an innovative business plan that satisfies consumers and will make money within three years, and won't be dependent on government subsidies for its sheer existence.

That's not a constructive strategy to create well-paying jobs and a viable industry, esp. in South Florida, but is sweet music to lobbyists, who will once again say that local and county govts. need them to do their magic in Washington, with taxpayers footing the tab.


We don't need more taxpayer-funded lobbyists in Washington, we need more high-tech jobs in Florida that are based on the free market system of providing a desired service to consumers at a price they deem reasonable enough to use.


If you doubt what I'm saying about the contrast in quality of the candidates for governor between California and the three currently running in Florida, simply go to Whitman's campaign sites for yourself and see what's there. They are well-designed, easy to navigate and full of useful information presented in an attractive manner that isn't a confusing mishmash of images.

Which is to say, that her sites are the exact opposite of the
Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel's websites, which are uninviting jumbled messes that seem to have no logical rhyme or reason other than to send you involuntarily to one of their sponsors.


Meg Whitman's got a damn impressive resume that's based on integrating innovative ideas and the ability to give consumers a product they find useful; has the right kind of personal temperament to handle the ups-and-downs of the office she's seeking; and has the demonstrated ability to create enthusiasm among others for her ideas and policies. Plus, quite clearly, she has some very smart and creative people around her to advise her, not the usual political retreads.

Your homework assignment is to compare and contrast Whitman with candidates from Florida.


Official
Meg Whitman campaign website
:
http://www.megwhitman.com/index.php

Meg Whitman
campaign YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Meg2010Campaign

Sunday, July 25, 2010

With 99 days 'til Election Day, POLITICO reports that cynical Obama Nation is sending flacks to FL to help bumbling Alex Sink make hay out of BP spill

Surprise! With 99 days 'til Election Day, The POLITICO is reporting Sunday that the cynical and craven Obama White House is sending flacks and hacks to FL to help bumbling, stumbling Alex Sink and her gubernatorial campaign make political hay out of BP oil spill.

Great, I'm sure that's exactly who respected and well-read Florida reporters and columnists like Steve Bousquet, Adam Smith, William March, Aaron Deslatte, Craig Pittman, Bill Cotterell, Jeremy Wallace and Dara Kam want to hear from about the Florida political campaigns: people who don't live here and who only know what's going on based on what they see and hear on TV, newspapers and blogs.


The POLITICO
W.H. sends 2012 rescue team to Fla.
By: Carol E. Lee
July 25, 2010 07:02 AM EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The White House has quietly launched an effort to confront the political backlash along the Gulf Coast over its handling of the BP oil spill – giving special attention to Florida, the only state in the region President Barack Obama won in 2008 and one he will need again when he runs for re-election in 2012.

The White House dispatched political and communications aides to the Gulf Coast states on July 12, with Alabama and Mississippi each receiving one, sources familiar with the effort said. Some aides went to Louisiana. Florida received four. Read the rest of the article at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40184.html This article also has this delicious pot-meets-kettle quote:


“It was just so off-target and out of touch with the reality of what’s going on over there,” Sink said in an interview at the Florida Democratic Party headquarters in Tallahassee.
Actually, being off-target and out-of-touch is the common talking point among Florida voters, Democratic and Republican, in describing Alex Sink's dismal gubernatorial campaign to date.

Savvy but honest and well-informed Republicans I've talked to from around the state are almost as confounded -
but more delighted!- by her repeated failure to launch as the Democratic activist community, who, rather foolishly, have deluded themselves into imagining that that Sink would be a strong, poised and polished can-do candidate like Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who is running to be governor of California, and whom most of my friends in Cali are currently supporting.
http://www.megwhitman.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VekQ1F9J-C8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZEPayRDA8


And that's
Meg Whitman, by the way, NOT Mae Whitman, as some news articles with bad editing have written that Mae would be a great candidate! LOL!
Mae
is the very talented twenty-two year old American actress who has, literally, grown-up before our eyes in one good film or TV show after another, as the daughter of, among others, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Bill Pullman.

She's currently appearing in NBC's Parenthood, which as I've written here previously, is a TV show that started-off far too slowly for me, due to the need to establish all the character's story arcs -and there were SO many characters!

But after the first 6-8 slow-moving episodes, the show's finally picked-up some momentum and has gotten dramatically better, with some compelling story lines that seem realistic to me.
Especially the tension between high school cousins, Mae's 'wild child' character Amber and 'good girl' Haddie, played by Sarah Ramos, who was so tremendous as the youngest daughter in another fave of mine that got cancelled far too soon, American Dreams.I would watch either one of them in anything because there's never a false note when they're on the screen.

That seething hurtful anger on the surface that Haddie had towards Amber at the end of the first season was SO realistic, that when they finally had to reconcile, because they were always going to be connected, it was almost awkward to watch.It deeply resonated with me from my experience of being in the middle of watching female friends get into it with other female relatives about old slights, both real and imagined.

Result: Me driving us back home to D.C. area on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at her family's home, and hours-and-hours of quiet punctuated by bouts of crying over in the passenger seat. Talk about a no-win situation.

It also helps greatly that the show also stars another longtime personal favorite, Lauren Graham, as Mae's mother. Mama Mia!
http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/bios/lauren-graham/index.shtml

Here's a short NBC video that features Lauren and Mae:

http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/bios/mae-whitman/index.shtml

See also http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0926165/ and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow-ovrl2_U



Experience and the realities of the campaign have clearly proven that
Sink is anything but a Meg Whitman.

If anything, she's more like a
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, but without either the royal Kennedy magic and name recognition.

Whatever else the many faults and weaknesses of GOP candidates Rick Scott and State Attorney General Bill McCollum may be, and there are plenty of self-evident ones to choose from, Alex Sink has proven that she is Not Ready for Prime Time.

Sorry, when you are governor of the fourth-largest state in the country, you have to have gravitas, and even though Charlie Crist has proven to be such a colossal disappointment and waste of a vote, doesn't mean we have to accept such a low threshold.

(Gravitas, yet another reason why I will vote enthusiastically for Marco Rubio in November, despite disagreements on some policy issues.
I know with certainty he's loyal to the Framer's intentions, smart-as-a-whip, hard-working and really sweats the details, some traits that CAN'T honestly be said for the other three candidates hoping to go to D.C. this Fall.)


And when you think about it, how could it be otherwise for Sink, when even now, with less than four months to go until November 2nd, both the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald are STILL mentioning in the first few paragraphs of their news coverage of her campaign the fact that a large portion of Florida voters not only don't know who she is, but, even more tellingly about her failure to make herself known and give a logical rationale for her candidacy, DON'T even know that she is a SHE.
Let me repeat that: DON'T even know that she is a SHE.
Yes, that's a real identity problem that even wheelbarrows of money and TV campaign ads can't undo the damage of.

Frankly, if Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene was smart, he'd have actually run for governor, as he'd have carved-up Alex Sink even more methodically and brutally than Scott or McCollum plan to do, and would have a better chance of actually improving the state for the better, especially since the Dems in Tallahassee now may be among the dumbest and least-accomplished in generations.

And not that you asked, but since I last mentioned it, I have received more emails from folks throughout the state saying that they agree with the well-founded rumor that State Rep. Joe Gibbons, who is supposed to represent me and other HB residents, as well as those from here westward in Broward County towards Miramar, actually lives in Jacksonville with his family when he is not at work in Tallahassee, NOT South Florida.

Sort of like a less geographically-challenging version of the problem Steve Geller confronts now living apart from his family in Cooper City, and hanging his lawyer/lobbyist hat in Hollywood Beach at night in order to meet the legal residency requirements of his battle against incumbent District 6 Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger.

Monday, November 2, 2009

My early Sunday morning, caffeine-filled political cry for a surprise Independent candidate for FL governor

Received the article below about State Senator
Paula Dockery announcing next week that she's
challenging Bill McCollum for the GOP 2010
gubernatorial nomination via a Google Alert.
I told you Google Alerts were great!

Given the fact that nobody is thrilled with the
announced candidates for next year's gubernatorial
race, including me, might this race for governor
represent the best opportunity ever in modern
Florida history for a savvy, moderate Independent
candidate, along the lines of what's happened
ub the recent past in Connecticut and Minnesota,
to win on a campaign predicated on changing
the dynamic of the culture of parochialism,
corruption and pay-for-play lobbying in Tallahassee
and throughout the state, esp. in Broward County?

Not to mention, the state's general backwardness
and clumsiness in dealing with international business
and trade in a sophisticated manner, despite all
the international trips taken by governors, cabinet
members and county commissioners.

Remind me again, what year did MIA finally
get rental luggage carts?
The first or second Clinton term?

That Florida trails many Northern states in solar
and alternative energy job creation ought to be
embarrassing to the state's so-called leaders,
but seems to bother them not a whit.

But despite everyone perpetually whining about
FP&L, it doesn't really seem to be bothering
Green voters in Florida enough to actually put
their own money where their mouth is to create
actual working alternatives that make sense and
make a profit.

Where are the successful solar and alternative
energy companies in the Sunshine State?

Not anywhere around South Florida, otherwise,
we'd all know the names of them from the local
media constantly lionizing them.

And seriously, what about the state's dated
1940's-era dependence on sales taxes and
real estate to keep the economy going,
rather than having.a broader-based
technology-based economy that wasn't
so sensitive to changes in tourism trends?

What sort of strategy is always hoping that
some out-of-state or foreign entity will just
magically drop-in and spend money, and
will ignore the fact that the state's poor
schools actually repel many decison-makers
from even considering the state in general,
or South Florida in particular?

Those people may come and visit on a trip,
family or business, but actually live here
with their families?
Are you kidding?

What kind of economic plan is hoping?
It sounds like farmers hoping for rain in
Third World countries beset by drought.

Like most of you, I hear media reports
every so often about someone in the state
making general platitudes about changing
that mentality at some CoC speech in
Orlando or Tampa or whatever, but
where's the action?

Where's an actual plan that you can look
at online and judge for yourself?

I'd love to see a governor's race on
important issues like this, but with
the humorless and charisma-challenged
characters we've got so far,
it doesn't look very good,
which is a sad reflection of the talent
in the country's fourth-largest state.

That fact, conversely, helps create
the vacuum for someone who really
will talk intelligently and enthusiastically
about those issues and lays out an
intelligent, sensible plan for making
the necessary changes.

I'm one moderate Democrat who'd
vote for that person, regardless of party.

Right now, my 2010 FL gubernatorial
vote is for
None of the Above.

---------
JaxPoliticsOnline.com

Paula Dockery Announcing For Governor Next Week

by Abel Harding
November 1, 2009
http://jaxpoliticsonline.com/2009/10/31/paula-dockery-announcing-for-governor-next-week/

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Meanwhile, back in Orlando, transit also stammers and stu-t-t-ers...

Meanwhile, back in Orlando, just as is the case in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, transit also stammers and stu-t-t-ers...

Received some very interesting info earlier yesterday afternoon in my daily email from the Central Florida Political Pulse blog, the Politics blog of the Orlando Sentinel, one of my daily must-reads, in the form of a post by the Sentinel's David Damron titled Orange Mayor Crotty Reveals Lynx Funding Plan.

But after reading it and absorbing the central points, I surprised myself and got to thinking about something else, or rather, some one else -Alex Sink.


Though it's been little commented on so far, don't think that people around the state, esp. those of us with an interest in transportation policy, aren't paying attention to CFO Alex Sink's role in the continuing transit mess in Central Florida -esp. commuter rail- even as she tries to morph her official role into that of a numbers-crunching, truth-telling combination of Agent Dana Scully and Agent Clarice Starling, saving the day right before it's too late.


Since I returned to South Florida from D.C. a few years ago, to the extent that I thought of Alex Sink at all -which I didn't- due largely to some positive words from friends back in D.C. and in Florida who were longtime Lawton Chiles supporters, I gave Sink the benefit of the doubt, even as I wondered why in the world she got so much attention.


(For instance, Florida Trend's May 2008 story, Sink Sees a Silver Lining in Florida's Slowdown
by Amy Keller
http://www.floridatrend.com/article.asp?aID=48843 )



But given that other than Gov. Charlie Crist, Sink has been the subject of more laudatory media coverage than anyone else in the state, where has she made a real difference in the lives of Florida citizens yet?


I've yet to hear Sink say anything either counter-intuitive or politically brave that would really cost her politically in the future, much less, take a principled stand that goes against the personal interests of her usual political/financial supporters. Where's the bold thinking?



Who knows, maybe something will happen in the not-too-distant future that'll give her the opportunity to show her true stripes and abilities, but thus far, given all the ink that's been used on her, color me unimpressed.


Can I really be the only person in South Florida who thinks this?


By the way, you may or may not be aware of the fact that in stark contrast to the popular approach that Gov. Sarah Palin took in Alaska with regard to getting rid of state aircraft, FL pols are much more averse to saying sayonara to their beloved "Wings of Man.'



Just over a year ago in a great Aug. 28th, 2007 post at the aforementioned CFPP, http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2007/08/just-plane-comm.html#more labeled, Just plane common sense, Aaron Deslatte wrote about the efforts to pare just one of the planes from the state's control.


Among the more interesting facts to emerge from that post was this one: Since June 1, state officials have racked up $258,962.50 in air fare on Florida's fleet, according to manifests for the three planes. Records show Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink flew the most in that period, with over $31,000 in air travel used through the summer.Crist came in second, with almost $24,000 in airfare around the state.


(Speaking of that, how funny would it be if somebody in a position to know, floated a rumor that the state airplanes had contained listening devices!? The sheer amount of lies and B.S. told on those planes would stupefy the electorate! And make great columns and newscasts!)

Based on what I've read and heard from across the state, and in myriad conversations/emails with folks much closer to the scene than me, including elected officials, for my money, Sink is THE most over-rated pol in the state, edging out Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, long a bête noire of mine, in case you've forgotten some past blog posts of mine where I've zeroed-in on her.

I really loathe DWS.


I've already written a pretty informative blog post about DWS that'll be coming out within the next week regarding her inclusion in the John Harwood and Jerry Seib book, Pennsylvania Avenue, which I think paints a very unflattering portrait of her personal scruples.

That's not my opinion alone, but rather one that's also shared by many folks around the country who've read the book, and commented to the authors.
In fact I even wrote someone recently and said that I wouldn't bring her up again in future emails because she's too much of a downer!


(The book was the NY Times Book Review's featured review three months ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/books/review/Widmer-t.html?partner=rssnyt )


By the way, per some of my earlier blog posts at HBB, and the August 1st post by Gabriel Lopez-Bernal at Transit Miami, http://www.transitmiami.com/2008/08/01/mary-peters-in-miami-today/
my formal request for info and docs about FDOT Sec. Kopelousos and her co-called "public" appearances in South Florida will be sent within the next few days, hopefully by next Monday.

I can hardly wait to read the predictable lame excuses, alibis and PR-spit-shined obfuscation that awaits me.

I will, of course, share it with you once it's in my hands.
______________________________
Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse
Orange Mayor Crotty Reveals Lynx Funding Plan
posted by David Damron on Sep 9, 2008


Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty released a Lynx funding plan Tuesday that would create a long-sought dedicated funding source for the bus system, but would likely do little to head off an immediate budget crunch that could gut some routes and trim service.


Crotty's plan calls for the leaders of Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties to each pledge a certain level of property taxes to fund the system, and lock it into place by establishing a regional transit system between the three governments.
The effort would require voter approval.


It would also put more of the future funding burden on Oseola and Seminole counties, who now contribute roughly $5 million.
Under Crotty's plan, that number would rise significantly to almost double that amount.


"If this is truly a regional asset, like a university or an airport," Crotty said, "then we need to think regionally and pay for it regionally."


To see the rest of the post:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/09/orange-mayor-cr.html