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

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.