Lots to talk about re: Florida and the presidential race. Yesterday Sarah Palin was in my neck of the woods spewing more hate (I guess that's why the weather turned chillier here yesterday), and although her speech was loved by the group of hatemongerers who went to see her she is being increasingly rejected by the majority of the state. Palin is a key reason why the Florida GOP is still freaking out over McCain's declining fortunes in the state, confirmed yet again by yesterday's Rasmussen poll showing Obama up by 7 in Florida, a decline that is tied in part to Floridians' continuing rejection of Palin. After watching Palin's speech, today the St. Petersburg Times blasted McCain's and Palin's "unworthy campaign of lies." And oh yes, I have my own personal story that adds further evidence of McCain's fading fortunes here.
Last week I wrote a diary about how the Florida GOP was so freaked out over all the polls showing Obama with a notable lead in the state that Florida GOP leaders gathered for a top-secret meeting to figure out how to stop the bleeding, amid rising tensions between the state party and the McCain campaign. Well, yesterday the Republican in-fighting in Florida blew out into the open.
The chair of the Florida Republican Party, Jim Greer, used to always fly around with his pal McCain in McCain's private jet when the candidate was in Florida. But not anymore, as the Times reports:
As an apparent sign of the tension between the state party and the McCain campaign, Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer is welcome to attend the events, as long as he makes his own travel arrangements.
The snub comes after Greer forced a tense, top-secret meeting Tuesday with McCain's Florida team and offered a critical take on what it needs to do to prevail in the must-win state.
Greer's offense? Speaking the truth about Sarah Palin.
Greer had already drawn stares from fellow Republicans for comments he made to the New York Times about Palin's shaky TV interviews with Katie Couric.
"She needs to be briefed more on certain aspects," he said. "She continues to be viewed very positively by the base of the party, but she needs to demonstrate that she's got the knowledge and ability to be president should the need arise."
Heresy! McCain's supporters seem to want to keep their heads in the sand about Palin's rising toxicity in Florida (as well as across the country), as confirmed - yet again - in the latest Rasmussen poll:
Florida voters are much more comfortable with Joe Biden than Sarah Palin for the Vice Presidency. While 38% say they would be extremely comfortable with Biden in office, 29% say that about Palin. Nearly half of voters (46%) say they would not be comfortable at all with Palin as VP, while just 28% say that about Biden.
Palin's hatefest in Clearwater yesterday lead the St. Petersburg Times to publish an editorial in today's edition that rebukes, in no uncertain terms, what it calls McCain's and Palin's "unworthy campaign of lies." It's a pretty brutal assessment:
Unable to slow Barack Obama's momentum or win on issues such as health care and the economy, John McCain has resorted to character assassination. It is common for a struggling campaign to change the subject, but this abrupt change in strategy is beneath the Arizona Republican who claims to value honor and integrity. McCain needs to put a stop to it in tonight's second presidential debate before he does permanent damage to his own reputation.
Um, I think the damage is already permanent. The Times goes on to recap the series of smears and lies Palin regurgitated in Florida yesterday, and to call her out for her racist tactics:
The intent remains the same: Scare white voters by exaggerating the links between a black presidential candidate and onetime violent radicals. Raise doubts about those associations while questioning Obama's patriotism and implying he is too radical to identify with middle class values. And do it in the context of a speech that later leads to chants of "USA!" and is delivered with a backdrop of supporters dressed in red, white and blue. It's not subtle, and voters ought to reject these campaign smears.
In conclusion, I have my own personal story to show how support for Obama is growing in Florida and how Floridians are increasingly rejecting McCain and Palin. Last month we moved into a new condo building, which sits on a street that, aside from our building, is filled with lots of quaint older homes. On-street parking has always been a contentious issue on this street, and on most of the street you'll see signs forbidding parking at any time. On moving day, our big moving van had no choice but to park in a no-parking area (it was the only area where the van could fit), but as soon as the van parked there an old man from across the street ran out and told us he had called the cops. "The sign says no parking anytime!" he yelled at us. This man is in his 70s, seemed to be as angry and nasty as he could be, a typical "Get Off My Lawn" kind of guy.
Anyway, the police indeed came, and the cop said we could have parked there if nobody had complained, and he said this old fart calls the cops all the time about stuff like this. So we wasted over an hour trying to figure out where the van could park, and eventually came up with a solution that required us to block the exit of our building's parking garage (residents had to use the entrance as an exit as well). A big hassle, and the entire time this old man stood in his lawn and watched all the havoc he had created. Needless to say, we hated him.
So yesterday we pull out of our parking garage and what do we see? An Obama sign smack dab in the center of his beautifully manincured lawn! My friends, we were blown away. If anyone seemed like a typical McCain voter, it was this guy. I don't know what prompted him to put the sign out yesterday, but there it is. My friends, if this cranky old man has lost McCain's support, he's in trouble. Florida is turning into a "Get Off My (Obama) Lawn!" state.