Perhaps you've heard about the Russian submarines patrolling international waters off the U.S. East Coast (if you haven't, take a look at a Reuters story about it) in what feels like an echo of the old Cold War. The Pentagon's not worried about this particular venture, but there are concerns from the U.S. energy industry about another Russian foray -- this one in concert with Cuba. In rhetoric that may ring a bell with anyone who saw the 1964 satirical nuclear-fear movie "Dr. Strangelove,"
the Washington-based Institute for Energy Research is sounding the alarm about a Russian-Cuban deal to drill for offshore oil near Florida.

"Russia, Communist Cuba Advance Offshore Energy Production Miles Off Florida's Coast," is the title on the institute's news release. Below that is the prescription for action: "Efforts Should Send Strong Message to Interior Dept. to Open OCS in Five-Year Plan." OCS stands for outer continental shelf, an area that was closed to oil drilling until the Bush administration opened it last year in a largely symbolic move aimed at driving down the sky-high gasoline prices of the Summer of 2008.

Environmentalists hate the idea. So does Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has made opposition to offshore drilling one of his signature issues. But as it turns out, it's unlikely that anybody -- from Russia, Cuba, the United States or anywhere else -- is going to get petroleum out of the OCS in the immediate future.

For a start, it takes time to set up a deep-water offshore drilling rig. And any Cuban effort would be further hampered by the need to use equipment with less than 10 percent American technology, to comply with the long standing U.S. embargo against Cuba. As my Reuters colleague Russell Blinch reported in June, there may be scope for possible U.S.-Cuban cooperation here but no Cuban drilling platform is likely to be in the area this year.

Reports of a Russian-Cuban deal to explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a quick response from the Institute for Energy Research, self-described as a free-market energy think-tank.

"This agreement between Russia and Cuba should serve as a wake-up call to Congress and this administration, especially (Interior) Secretary (Ken) Salazar, who is slow-walking a new offshore energy blueprint for the nation," the institute's president, Thomas Pyle, said in a statement. "If we are to remain competitive in the global market, our government must take its foot off the brake, and expand domestic energy production of all forms, onshore and off.”

What's your take? Should the United States drill baby drill off Florida's coast, reasoning that if U.S. companies don't, Russia and Cuba will? Keep a congressional ban in place? Or wait and see?

Photo credit: Reuters staff photographer (Pensacola Beach, Florida, June 25, 2008); Reuters stringer/Russia (Russian nuclear submarine off Vladivostok, July 24, 2009)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush says he’s disappointed that his younger brother Jeb Bush has ruled out running for a Florida Senate seat in 2010.
The former Florida governor removed himself from consideration this week, saying now is not the right time for him to return to elected office.

“I am disappointed he didn’t run. I haven’t talked to him since he made the decision,” Bush said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Thursday.

“I actually wanted him to run for senator, but you know … We all have different family issues you’ve got to deal with,” Bush said. The Morning News will be Bush’s hometown paper when be begins his post-presidential life at his new home in Dallas later this month.

Bush said he will see his brother, and maybe get more details on his decision, when the family get together on Saturday in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Bush brothers will attend the commissioning of an aircraft carrier named for their father and former president, George H.W. Bush.

Asked about Jeb Bush’s decision and the future of the Bush “dynasty,” the president responded with a question of his own.

“You meant to ask: What is the future of the Bush family?” Bush said, laughing off the “dynasty” premise. “We will be healthy, happy people.”

Bush hands over the reins of presidential power to Barack Obama on Jan. 20, and says he plans to steer clear of party politics for a while.

  - Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (President George W. Bush with brother Jeb Bush at the White House, April 19, 2006)

WASHINGTON - The Bush dynasty in Washington may not be over just yet.

Even as President George W. Bush is packing his bags to head to Texas after eight years in the White House, he is stirring up a little political curiosity about his “little” brother Jeb possibly running for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida.

In an interview with the blog RealClearPolitics published this week, President Bush was asked if Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, would be part of comeback by Republicans in 2010 after a drubbing in the last two congressional elections.

“He would be an awesome U.S. senator,” Bush replied. The seat up in 2010 is being vacated by Republican Sen. Mel Martinez who decided earlier this month not to run for another term.

Political analysts expect the Florida race to be one of the most competitive and he would join a few other potential family dynasty extensions if Caroline Kennedy is picked for the New York Senate seat Hillary Clinton is vacating soon, and then runs in 2010, and if Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s son Beau runs for his father’s seat.

Jeb Bush is considering a run but is not expected to make a decision before the end of the year. Pushed about whether Republicans need him in the race, the president of course threw his support to his sibling.

“I think the party would benefit a lot by having Jeb Bush in the U.S. Senate,” Bush said. “I think Florida would benefit a lot. I think the country would benefit a lot. And I think the Republican Party would benefit a lot. He is a proven leader who, when given responsibilities, succeeded.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (The Bush men together after christening an aircraft carrier named after President George H.W. Bush in 2006.)

Posted by Michael Peltier and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON — Republican Mel Martinez of Florida — a Cuban immigrant who says he lived “The American Dream” — is calling it quits as a member of the U.S. Senate.

Having narrowly won a first term in 2004 and facing an anticipated tough re-election in 2010, Martinez announced on Tuesday he will not run for a second term.

“The inescapable truth, for me, is that the call to public service is strong — but the call to home, family and lifelong friends is even stronger,” Martinez said in a statement that he read at a news conference in Orlando, Florida, and was also released in Washington.

Martinez made his declaration almost a month after the Nov. 4 elections that saw Democrats expand their majorities in Senate and House of Representatives, largely because of the unpopularity of outgoing Republican President George W. Bush and the worst economic crisis since The Great Depression.

Martinez is the second U.S. senator up for re-election in 2010 who has announced he will not seek another term. The other is Sam Brownback of Kansas, who’s also a Republican. Both plan to complete their six-year terms before leaving.

Thirty-five seats of the 100 Senate seats will be up for grabs in two years, 16 of them held by Democrats, 19 by Republicans.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which tracks congressional races, had listed Martinez as among the most vulnerable incumbents. It had called his race as a “tossup.”

Martinez, 62, came to the United States at age 15, graduated from college, earned a law degree and ended up getting elected to the Senate after serving in Bush’s Cabinet as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

“We proved the American Dream is alive and well,” Martinez said. He said his decision not to seek another term was personal, not political.

“Some might try to characterize this decision in terms of political affairs. Some will say a re-election campaign would have been too difficult. But I’ve faced much tougher odds in political campaigns and in life. My decision was not based on reelection prospects, but on what I want to do with the next eight years of my life,” the senator said.

Democrats and Republicans are certain to move quickly in a search for possible candidates to replace him.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith (Martinez speaks during the Republican National Convention in September.)

MIAMI - Voting monitors in swing-state Florida said the biggest problem was long lines, especially on college campuses.

In two Sarasota precincts, so many votes were cast that no more could be stuffed into the ballot boxes.

“The lock box is overflowing and they are putting the ballots in bags,” said Marcia Johnson-Blanco from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which was part of a vote-monitoring coalition.

Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning said turnout could eclipse the 1992 record of 83 percent in the nation’s fourth most populous state.

That suggests there could still be a lot of people waiting in line to vote when the polls close, delaying results in the state that kept the nation waiting for weeks to determine who won its 2000 presidential election. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

- Reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami and Michael Peltier in Tallahassee.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Hans Deryk (voters wait in line in Miami Beach)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden gave a group of Cub Scouts an impromptu tour of his campaign aircraft, showing them the cockpit and handing out Halloween candy.

The young scouts, some of them wearing red plastic fireman hats, had been visiting firefighters at the airport when Biden, on a campaign swing through northern Florida, arrived with his entourage.

“Have you ever seen a big plane before, up close?,” the senator asked the boys. “You guys wanna come and see my plane? I’m gonna get in trouble but come on.”

When he introduced himself as Joe Biden, one of the boy’s said he had heard of him on television. “Yeah, I’m Barack Obama’s running mate,” replied the Delaware senator.

One by one, he took the boys into the cockpit to meet the pilot and see the controls and then posed for pictures with them.

When one of the boys pointed to candy in a basket and asked whether they were Biden’s snacks, the senator whispered, ‘You can sneak one if you want,” and then handed out the candy to the boys before leading them out.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Just two days before the U.S. presidential election, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden smells victory for Barack Obama.

Speaking at Florida State University in Tallahassee, his first in a three-stop swing through the battleground state of Florida on Sunday, Biden pointed to a dramatic bronze statue entitled “Unconquered” outside the university’s stadium.

“This is a great place to have this rally in front of the ‘Seminole Unconquered’. I tell you, I don’t think you ever approach this stadium without smelling victory in the air,” Biden said. 

The statue depicts a spear-brandishing Seminole Indian astride a rearing horse and was designed to “capture the indomitable spirit” of the Seminole people, says the university’s website. 
 

With polls showing Obama ahead of Republican John McCain, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson was also in an upbeat mood when he introduced Biden. 
 

“Do you smell victory in the air?,” Nelson said. “I suspect on Tuesday night we are going to be singing ‘happy days are here again’,” he told about 2,000 enthusiastic supporters. 
 

A small group of protesters shouted anti-Obama slogans on the outskirts of the rally and Biden had a message for them and other McCain supporters who were criticizing Obama. 
 

“Not only will we, but they in the parking lot (the protesters), they will be calling Barack Obama something else. They will call him President Obama — President Barack Obama, commander-in-chief of the United States of America.” 

Biden, who became a senator in 1972, poked fun at a skit on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ this weekend when McCain tried to sell a talking doll in the image of the Delaware senator. 

“I was told by one of my staff guys that I gotta get a Biden pull doll,” he said.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Biden and Obama campaign in Florida)

PLANT CITY, Florida - Republican John McCain was taking advantage of the what the land provided to eat his way across Florida while on a bus tour on Thursday.

In Altamonte Springs, the Straight Talk Express made a beeline for Mi Viejo San Juan restaurant where McCain declared to the owner, “We’re hungry.”

Joined by his wife, Cindy, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, McCain tucked into heaping plates of chicken, beef, mounds of rice and fried plaintains.

 
The bus took off again, and this time the destination was Plant City. The one and only stop was at a strawberry produce place called Parksdale Farms whose sign declared, “Welcome to Strawberry Country.”

Repairing to what the store advertised as its “Garden of Eatin,” the McCain group sat down at a picnic table and was served large portions of strawberry shortcake topped with a thick pile of whipped cream.

“This is the kind of small business we have to support,” McCain told reporters afterward as the owner handed him and Cindy bags of Florida oranges for the bus ride.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain ducks through the window at Parkesdale Farms in Plant City, Florida to order a strawberry shortcake)

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Political rallies are usually ideal for reporters to chat with party activists, but the campaign of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin took an unusual step by appearing to limit access to her supporters.

At Monday’s rally in the battleground state of Florida, reporters were barred from wandering around the area where the Alaska governor’s supporters had gathered. 

About 20 seconds into an interview I attempted with Brent McDonald, 52, I was stopped by a Palin campaign worker in mid-sentence. “The press is not allowed out here,” she said. 

I asked why. “I”m just telling you what they are telling me,” she replied.

A St. Petersburg Times reporter wrote that a campaign worker said that in the past negative things had been written.  “The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday,” the reporter wrote on the newspaper’s “This Just In” blog.

In my case, I thought there might be an easy explanation that had little to do with media control. As a Reuters correspondent, I typically travel in what is called a “press pool” — a group that sticks closely to the candidate and rides in the motorcade. We go where the candidate goes. 

The “pool” is searched or “swept” by the Secret Service in the morning. Once that’s done, protocol requires we generally don’t mix with the public. That means staying clear of the big throngs at rallies. Otherwise, we’ll need to be searched again by the Secret Service — a tricky task when a motorcade is about to tear out of a rally.

But on this ocassion, I made it clear to Palin’s campaign that Clearwater was my last stop. There was no need to “sweep” me again. I wouldn’t be traveling with the pool for the remainder of the day. That freed me to mingle with the crowd.

So, I continued in my attempt to interview McDonald, who was starting to explain that his family were Democrats but that he was going with the Republican ticket. 

“I can trust them. McCain fought for us and it’s pretty hard not to trust a woman who is a mother of five,” he said. But as he was about to launch into another thought, a second Palin campaign worker interrupted us, asking me to leave the area.

I jotted down McDonald’s name and was ushered into an area gated away from the main group of Palin supporters.      

The crowd, estimated by police at around 5,000 people, feted the 44-year-old self-described “hockey mom” like a rock star. The crowd was especially enthusiastic in an area that was tightly organized with one section of supporters all dressed in blue shirts, another in red, and another in white. Standing together, they formed a human American flag. 

Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank reported that some Palin supporters at the Clearwater rally turned on reporters in the press area, shouting abuse after Palin blamed CBS News anchor Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.”

“Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, ‘Sit down, boy’, Milbank wrote.  

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Szep (Palin supporters with their outfits form a U.S. flag behind the stage)

WASHINGTON - A slew of new state polls released on Wednesday showed some shift in momentum toward Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama and away from Republican rival John McCain.

CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. released polls for five battleground states — Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia — that showed Obama ahead among likely voters in all of them, though still within the margin of error in four.

Obama held a 51 percent to 47 percent lead in both Florida and Nevada, a 53 percent to 44 percent lead in Virginia, a 54 percent to 43 percent advantage in Minnesota and a narrow 49 percent to 48 percent edge in Missouri.

CNN said its previous surveys of those states had showed McCain was up in Nevada, Virginia and Missouri. And previously in Florida the two were tied and in Minnesota Obama was up two points.

Meanwhile, new polls by Quinnipiac University in three key states also showed a small uptick in support for Obama after last week’s presidential debate.

In Florida, Obama’s lead grew to 51 percent to 43 percent, from 49 percent to 43 percent before the debate.

In Ohio, Obama was up 50 percent to 42 percent, versus 49 percent to 42 percent prior to the debate. Remember, no Republican has won the White House without the state.

And finally in Pennsylvania, where Obama has struggled a bit, he widened his lead to 54 percent to 39 percent from before the debate when he was up 49 percent to 43 percent. 

A McCain spokeswoman, when asked about Obama’s jump in a handful of polls, stressed that the Arizona senator was an underdog in the race and that it was a difficult year for Republicans.

(additional reporting by Jeff Mason)

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credits: Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain at the Harry S. Truman presidential library); Jason Reed (Obama at a rally in La Crosse, Wisc.)