In my last post I tried to sympathetically encourage our popular Democratic Chief Financial Officer to run for re-election rather than the US Senate. But when I read St. Pete Times Political Editor Adam Smith’s piece entitled "Other Democrats wait as CFO Sink ponders Senate bid" the other day I began to get an uneasy feeling.
This piece of Traditional Media non-analysis spouted a grating example of conventional wisdom:
When it comes to Florida Democrats dreaming of a U.S. Senate seat, it's Alex Sink's world. Most everybody else is just waiting for her utterance.
[snip]
A big part of Sink's advantage is that she is the only Democrat in the mix who has run statewide already, and she has proved her ability to win over swing voters.
In 2006, Sink beat Republican Tom Lee by 7 percentage points, about the same margin that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist won his race that year. A businesswoman with a North Carolina twang, she performed especially well in conservative North Florida.
I’ve already addressed this in a previous diary. The major point to be made is that running for CFO is not the same as running for US Senate. Her background as a bank executive uniquely qualifies her for the position. Also, it’s pretty easy to be a fiscal conservative when you don’t actually have to come up with or pass the budget.
But I think the thing that sticks in my craw is that this is the same Stinking Thinking that went into the unsuccessful political effort to defeat Amendment 2 called Florida Red and Blue. That campaign tried to make the case that the amendment was bad because it would hurt old heterosexual people who were living together without marrying (otherwise their social security benefits would decline).
Most of the people I knew backing this approach were also Hillary Clinton people, and it didn’t surprise me. I had to agree with Republican Party Of Florida head Ron Greer that it was dishonest and smacked of the worst kind of political triangulation that characterized the Clinton presidency. Its guiding principle was cynicism. And we all witnessed the disastrous results of that approach. A recent Slate article about the movie Milk beautifully details the vapidity of trying to deal with gay issues while not addressing the problem head on.
It is this triangulation view of politics that was completely overturned by the Obama campaign. And yet, this reporter still accepts it as fact. His desire to frame his story around his own conventional wisdom instead of reality is belied by what he buries in the last paragraphs:
Not everyone is cowed by the prospect of a favorite.
"My time line is not based on CFO Sink or anyone else that has expressed an interest," said Meek, who has been talking to party activists throughout the state about a potential run.
"I'm talking to everyone that's said they're interested because I don't want to see a situation where the entire Democratic bench is in the same race for the same office," Meek said. "But in the end, if I do decide to do this and you have a crowded primary, that's just the way the field will be."
In other words, Kendrick Meek’s NOT waiting on Sink. Oh, now we see that the reporter included the word "Most" when saying that "everybody else is just waiting for her utterance."
But if that’s the case, why not reframe the piece as what it really is: a showdown between Old Style Politics and Obama Style Politics. As I pointed out in my diary entitled FL-Sen in 2010 Will Be The Magic 60, Rep. Meek could probably bring Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank (who was recently favorably profiled in the New Yorker) down to Florida to endorse him. Why isn’t the ability to do that just as significant, if not more so, then winning a state wide race for CFO?
I can tell you right now what would clear the Democratic primary field. That would be for Rep. Meek to go to a function like the Jefferson-Jackson Day event, announce his candidacy and in so doing, ask for the support of both the Florida Democratic Black Caucus and the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus and pledge to find a way to bring the entire party together for victory in 2010. Such a grand gesture would do an enormous amount to establish Meek as someone who can help us build a stronger, more determined electorate.
And to Hell with performing well in conservative North Florida. Why don’t we leave that to the Republicans.
Cross Posted From FlaPolitics.com
Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., right, introduces former President Bill Clinton as Clinton campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Pendleton, Ore., Sunday, May 11, 2008. (AP Photo by Dan Ryan)
Nancy Pelosi is joined onstage by (left to right) Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, (FL.), Rep. Tim Ryan, (OH.) and Rep. Kendrick Meek, (FL.) at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the Capitol Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Chronicle photo by Michael Macor
Kendrick Meek and Barney Frank presented with Gay and Lesbian Leadership Awards
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