Presidential candidates take on Castro in Florida
Republican White House contenders took the race to win their party’s nomination to Florida this week, where they tried to outdo each other on topics important to Floridians–including what to do about Cuba, the small, Communist, Spanish-speaking island that has long frustrated U.S. foreign policy.
In a debate on Monday in Tampa, the candidates took turns lambasting Castro and current U.S policy toward Cuba, striving to curry favor with conservative Cuban Americans who make up the majority of Florida’s 400,000-some Hispanic Republican voters.
Florida votes next in a primary race that has already had three different winners and is home to the country’s largest Cuban-American community–many of them former refugees who escaped the communist dictatorship under Fidel Castro. A 2011 poll by the University of Florida showed that 80 percent of Cuban Americans believe a decades-long U.S. trade embargo on the country has been ineffective.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said that if the Cuban dictator died he would, “Thank heavens that Fidel Castro has returned to his maker and will be sent to another land.”
He criticized Obama’s efforts to relax relations by opening up travel to the country for Cuban Americans to visit relatives. “This is the wrong time for that, with this kind of heroics going on,” he said. “We want to stand with the people of Cuba that want freedom. We want to move that effort forward not by giving in and saying we lost, but by saying we will fight for democracy.”
In his turn to answer, Gingrich made the point of one-upping Romney. “First of all…I don’t think that Fidel is going to meet his maker. I think he’s going to go to the other place.”
Gingrich said that as president he would try “aggressively to overthrow the regime,” using covert operations to bring about a “Cuban Spring” more exciting than the Arab Spring.
Biden welcomes Navy ship home for the holidays
MAYPORT, Fla. – Vice President Joe Biden made an unscheduled stop during a visit to Florida on Thursday to greet 350 sailors from the USS Gettysburg as they came home after seven months at sea.
A brass band played and happy families waved flags and held up signs as a grinning Biden helped them welcome home loved ones just in time for the holidays. Seven of the sailors who had babies born while they were at sea were allowed to get off the ship first.
Sophia Perfida, 11 months, waits to see her father.
One sailor dressed up as Santa Claus in honor of the ship’s arrival, drawing thrilled shouts from some of the children waiting for their mothers and fathers.
“This is the greatest thing in the world,” said Captain Robert Hein, commander of the guided-missile cruiser Gettysburg, which had been to Afghanistan, off the Horn of Africa and the Mediterranean during its deployment.
“This is Christmas, New Year’s, the Fourth of July and your birthday all wrapped up in one.”
Reuters-Ipsos poll: Tea Party favorite Rubio ahead in Florida Senate race
The Tea Party’s on a roll and it’s a wake-up and smell the coffee moment for anyone who had dismissed the movement as a passing fad.
Tea Party backed Christine O’Donnell shook the political cognoscenti by winning the Delaware Republican primary over longtime congressman Michael Castle last night.
Another Tea Party favorite, Marco Rubio, is leading in the Senate race in Florida, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll on Wednesday.
With just six weeks to go until the Nov. 2 election, Rubio leads Florida Governor Charlie Crist, an independent, 40-26 percent among likely voters. Democrat Kendrick Meek trails at 21 percent.
The Democratic candidate is likely taking support away from Crist, because in a two-way race Rubio and Crist poll head-to-head 46-45 percent.
Rubio comes out ahead on being seen as “the best person to represent Florida” among likely voters by 43 percent compared with Crist 34 percent and Meek 17 percent.
The Florida governor race is close, with Republican Rick Scott leading Democrat Alex Sink 47-45 percent among likely voters.
Florida, Arizona contestants set, still waiting on Alaska…
The contestants are set in Florida’s three-way race for the U.S. Senate and John McCain holds on to pursue a fifth term.
But most of the chatter this morning is about the Alaska surprise where Joe Miller, an underdog candidate backed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, edged into the lead over incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. It may take a week or more to determine the winner of the primary as rural and absentee votes are tallied.
How Miller fares will be seen as a test of Palin’s clout in the Republican Party. She has backed a number of candidates in this primary season and her results are mixed.
The Palin-Murkowski rivalry is not new, the former Republican vice presidential candidate defeated the senator’s father, Frank Murkowski in the 2006 race for Alaska governor.
The Anchorage Daily News quoted Miller saying he was certain Palin’s endorsement was “pivotal” for his 51-49 percent lead. The newspaper also quoted Murkowski taking a shot at PalinTuesday night by saying “I think she’s out for her own self-interest. I don’t think she’s out for Alaska’s interest.”
McCain’s victory in the Arizona Republican primary went against the anti-incumbent mood when he defeated challenger J.D. Hayworth in a hard fought battle in which both candidates claimed the support of Tea Party activists.
In the Florida primary, Congressman Kendrick Meek defeated billionaire Jeff Greene to become the Democratic candidate for Senate. Meek will square off against Republican nominee and Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio and Governor Charlie Crist, who left the Republican party this year to run as an independent.
Lisa was appointed by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski, to his own unexpired Senate seat in December 2002. Is Alaska’s Senate seat hereditary?
Palin shops reality show as RNC fear campaign stalks Obama
Sarah Palin may be about to add another high-profile credential to her resume by taking TV viewers moose hunting in Alaska.
She can already boast about being a mayor, a governor, a vice presidential nominee, a bestselling author — she’s also writing a new book about American virtues and strengths — a TV political pundit and a Big Name campaigner for candidates in the 2010 congressional elections.
Now she wants to be a reality show TV star, too.
One of the most visible Republican figures on the White House wannabe stage, Palin is teaming up with TV producer Mark Burnett to shop a proposal for a reality show based on her family and their life in picturesque Alaska to at least three major broadcast networks.
But while Palin is an experienced hunter, the Republican Party has just shot itself in the foot with a political marketing idea of a different kind altogether.
The RNC has been pursuing an aggressive fundraising strategy that uses rude caricatures of President Barack Obama and other top Democrats and plays on donors’ fears to line its coffers.
Obama has his own reality show, sponsored by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and the NYT and forced on us by Democrats. It is easy to deal with the set ups, the fake anecdotes and the teleprompter addiction. I just refuse to watch or read the nonsense.
Conservative Rubio pulls ahead in Florida Republican primary
Conservative Republican Marco Rubio is building a lead over moderate Governor Charlie Crist in Florida’s Republican Senate primary, a contest highlighting the perils facing party moderates in this rambunctious election year, a poll shows.
A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Republican primary voters released this week showed Rubio, a former Florida House Speaker, with 54 percent support against Crist’s 36 percent. A poll in January had Rubio ahead by 13 points.
The primary race has echoes in Arizona, where veteran Senator John McCain faces his strongest challenge yet from fiery conservative J.D. Hayworth, who is attacking his “moderate record” on taxes, social issues and the bank bailout.
Rubio, who like Hayworth is a favorite of Tea Party conservative activists who hope to make a splash in the 2010 congressional election and beyond, is campaigning on issues including opposition to “excessive and wasteful spending in Washington” and big government.
He is assailing Crist for taking funds from the $787 billion federal government stimulus, and for his willingness to work with Democratic President Barack Obama — a definite no-no with Republican hard-liners.
“While Republicans were advocating for targeted efforts based on broad-based tax relief and spending reforms, Charlie Crist ignored those efforts, instead siding with Barack Obama and congressional Democrats in favor of the largest spending bill in American history,” Rubio said in a statement released on Wednesday.
Yes he is a progressive who loves destroying our country with latino gangs and the crud that goes with it.
I say round every one of them up and beat them back into Mexico. Kudos to the sheriff that won’t take it anymore.
We can’t rely on the Federal Government to do what they are suppose to do. They are a bunch of rotten, no-good crooks.
Tea Party ‘warriors’ take aim at Florida Senate race
Conservative Tea Party activists had loads of fun in Boston last month helping Scott Brown chuck Teddy Kennedy’s forever-Democratic Senate seat into Republican waters.
Now the painted warriors hope to stage a reenactment of Florida’s Dade Massacre, with Republican Gov. Charlie Crist playing the ill-fated Maj. Dade.
A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Crist 12 percentage points behind former state House Speaker and Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio in Florida’s Republican primary contest for the U.S. Senate. Rubio leads Crist 49 percent to 37 percent.
Rubio’s lead is only just outside the poll’s 5 percentage point margin of error, and 11 percent of the 449 people surveyed say they’re undecided. But the numbers suggest a fundamental change in voter sentiment since August, when Crist’s support stood at 53 percent. Rubio and Crist both hold a double-digit lead over likely Democratic nominee, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, in the general election campaign to replace retiring Republican Sen. Mel Martinez.
Rubio’s fortunes present an important test of the Tea Party movement’s ability to draw votes. But there may be more than that at stake. Pundits say the Tea Party movement needs national leadership to become a true force in American politics. A Senate victory for Rubio could help give them that in time for the 2012 presidential election campaign.
But is the Tea Party movement really without leaders? An article in The New Yorker magazine points out the involvement of former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. It also notes that some well-heeled lobby groups and think tanks, including Americans for Tax Reform, the Club for Growth, Campaign for Liberty and the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, sponsored the Tea Party march in Washington last September.
Photo Credits: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Boston Tea Party Reenactment); Reuters/Mark Wallheiser (Charlie Crist); Reuters/Larry Downing (Dick Armey)
Americans should support any movement that will bring back our constitutional rights that have been allowed to degenerate due to both the Republican and Democratic parties. If the tea parties will do this than more power to them. Perhaps it will even bring about a third party that will be middle of the road with independents which will blunt the influence of both liberals and conservatives.
from Environment Forum:
Calling Dr. Strangelove!
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?
Bush disappointed by brother’s senate decision
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 stirs political pot for possible Jeb Senate run
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.”
Bet a cask that Newt winds up being a cellie with Fidel in the afterlife, LOL! Vote pandering at it’s finest (facepalm)
To a lot of the younger generation in Miami and South Florida, they think of that as a thing of “abuelitos”. The reality is they are more interested in work than whether Mr. Castro breaths or not.
Y’all will miss the old man when he’s gone, he gave you a lot of political capital over the years.