Palin Holds Nothing Back in Florida Stops.

The Lakeland Ledger, 6 October 2008

ESTERO | When Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made her first campaign trip to Florida two weeks ago, she and John McCain were enjoying a post-convention boost and leading in the polls. She made a few jabs at Democrat Barack Obama, mainly over issues such as energy and the Iraq war.

The state of McCain's campaign and Palin's approach were far different when she returned to Florida on Monday. McCain's lead here has vanished. And Palin was in full attack mode before thousands of supporters in Clearwater and, later Monday, in a hockey arena near Fort Myers.

Proclaiming "the heels are on, the gloves off," Palin went straight for Obama's character, citing his ties to 1960s radical William Ayers. She promised more bare-knuckled politicking in the 28 days before the election.

"From now and until Election Day, hang onto your hats because, you know, it may get kinda rough here," Palin said with her signature sass. "Campaigns have to step up and kinda take the gloves off and start telling the truth."

Editor's Note -- Of course, Obama will now try to bring up Keating Five but the many shady years of Obama versus the transitory McCain misjudgement are damning. For The Economist's positive review of Freddoso's book chronicling those corrupt years and Obama's troubling agenda, The Case Against Barack Obama, The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of Media's Favorite Candidate: Here's looking at you, kid.

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Constitutional Amendments: What You Need to Know.

Miami Trend, 6 October 2008

The 2008 presidential race isn’t the only high-stakes political battle playing out in Florida this fall. On Nov. 4, voters will face a lineup of six ballot initiatives that cover everything from gay marriage to creating tax breaks for marinas and conservation lands. Each measure will require 60% approval by voters to pass.

Only one of the measures originated in the state Legislature: Amendment 1, a proposal to delete an obsolete provision in the state Constitution that allows the Legislature to prohibit property ownership by “aliens ineligible for citizenship.” Amendment 2, a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, is the only proposed amendment that came from a citizens’ initiative. Florida4Marriage.org, the group that sponsored the proposal, collected 649,346 signatures — the law requires at least 611,009 — to get it on the ballot.

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Lockheed Orlando unit could gain from F-35 sale to Israel.

Orlando Sentinel, 6 October 2008

A potential $15 billion deal involving the sale of the Joint Strike Fighter to Israel could inject millions of dollars in new revenue to Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Central Florida operations.

U.S. defense officials recently notified Congress that the Pentagon wants to sell up to 75 of the advanced F-35 fighter jets to Israel, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed -- the nation's largest defense contractor -- is the F-35's prime contractor, led by its aircraft division in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hundreds of jobs in Central Florida are tied to the work. The Lockheed Orlando simulation training unit makes the F-35 flight- and maintenance training systems; Lockheed's Orlando missiles unit builds weapons-targeting systems for the fighter jet.

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Restoration of felons' voting rights in Florida has 'never been easier.'

Tallahassee Democrat, 4 October 2008

With felons who have served their time now having a much easier path back to the voting booth, the 2008 political season has led to some efforts to harness a newly accessible voting bloc.

Since April 2007, when new procedures were approved to rescind much of Florida's Jim Crow-era voting practices, 123,000 felons have had their rights restored and could help decide where Florida's 27 electoral votes go in the presidential election. There are still 56,502 cases pending for felons seeking to get back the right to vote.

"It's never been easier," said Parole Commission spokeswoman Jane Tillman of felons getting their civil rights restored. "They don't have to do anything but call us. They can e-mail us, fax us or go online."

Editor's Note -- That's a lot of new Dims.

See: : State office is inundated with new voter registration forms.

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Popular class-size amendment may be sidelined by economy.

Orlando Sentinel, 2 October 2008

Florida's popular class-size amendment may be put on ice, thanks to a weakening economy and a statewide budget crisis.

Despite strong public support, a broad consensus is forming that the goal of limiting class size is simply too expensive during the current economic crunch.

Even advocates of the amendment told the Orlando Sentinel this week that it might need to be scaled back.

School superintendents, grappling with cuts, would welcome the move. And the Florida Education Association, the state's teachers union, said it would not object -- but only if the changes were temporary

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Gotti arrest recalls Florida mob history

Miami Herald, 30 September 2008

TAMPA -- The ghosts of Tampa's old-time wiseguys awakened this summer when Mafia scion John ''Junior'' Gotti came to town in handcuffs, accused of pulling the strings in a bunch of classic mobster crimes.

The federal indictment against him reads like a plot summary for The Sopranos. The 44-year-old Gotti -- son of the late ''Dapper Don'' of the notorious Gambino crime family -- allegedly had his fingers in everything: whacking rivals, trafficking in cocaine, bribery, kidnapping and money-laundering. Earlier convictions show Gambino crews worked for years to get a foothold in the Tampa area's criminal underworld.

If the charges against Gotti are true, then he was a Johnny-come-lately. The Tampa region's history is rich with stories of ruthless gangsters who grabbed control of illegal gambling and liquor distribution during Prohibition, executed rivals, bribed public officials, controlled the drug trade and eventually broadened their influence across the Sunshine State and pre-Castro Cuba.

Editor's Note -- More Florida rogues: 10 of Florida's Biggest Crooks. A list of Florida Trend's top 10 characters and white-collar crimes of the last 50 years. It wasn't easy to get it down to 10.

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A changing Florida banking landscape.

Sarasota Herald Tribune, 30 September 2008

In another shake-up to Florida's turbulent banking industry, Citigroup Inc. will become the state's largest bank after agreeing Monday to acquire the banking operations of ailing Wachovia Corp.

Wachovia, Florida's biggest bank by deposits, was sold in a deal brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to head off another bank failure.

Citigroup will pay Wachovia $2.16 billion, or $1 per share, and assume $53 billion in debt. The deal is expected to close by year end.

Citigroup will jump to Florida's No. 1 bank via Wachovia's $75 billion in deposits and 703 offices.

Editor's Note -- Here's more on Florida banking: New York banks invade Florida .

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Who Will Take Florida? McCain or Obama?

Florida Trend Magazine, 1 October 2008

Presidential Edge

John McCain will likely run 1% to 2% ahead of his national percentage in Florida. I would give him a slight edge in the state based on 1) high percentage of military retirees; 2) higher percentage of older voters; and 3) cross-over vote among conservative Democrats, which gives Florida its GOP lean over the past 20 years.

Veep Factor

Sarah Palin will help McCain more in Florida than Joe Biden will help Barack Obama. McCain has been running about 10 points below other successful statewide GOP candidates (Jeb Bush, Mel Martinez, Charlie Crist and George W. Bush) among registered Republican voters. Palin should rally the base GOP to McCain and improve his chances of carrying Florida.

Minority Turnout

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Florida House, Senate races heat up; Legislative campaign most expensive in state's history

Florida Capital News, 28 September 2008

If it hasn't already, your mailbox will soon begin to bulge with campaign materials from state legislative candidates.

Unless you're a devotee of public broadcasting or the home-shopping stations, it will be hard to watch 10 minutes of TV in October without hearing from House and Senate hopefuls. Some will even be ringing your doorbell, glad-handing you at football games or waving signs on street corners.

From the farmlands of the Panhandle to the condo canyons of Miami Beach, it's the most expensive legislative campaign in Florida history — and neither party expects much to change when it's over. Republican majorities of 77-43 in the House and 26-14 in the Senate might change by a seat or two, up or down, but not even the most optimistic Democrat has any illusions about taking over either chamber of the Capitol's fourth floor.

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Sorting out the truth on Iraq.

Tampa Bay Online, 27 September 2008

Here is a series of statements by McCain and Obama with Tampa Bay Online comments. The series opens with a McCain snippet:

When the United States invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein wanted to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and "he said so himself after his capture."

John McCain, June 4 in St. Petersburg The ruling

Among the most definitive records yet produced on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction is a report from the Iraq Survey Group, a group affiliated with the CIA. It released its initial report in 2004 and a concluding addenda in 2005. The report stated that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction during the run-up to the U.S. invasion in 2003. The 1,000-page report concluded that Hussein did away with his weapons program in the years after the Persian Gulf War, but deliberately encouraged ambiguity about whether his regime possessed the weapons. But, what about Hussein's remarks after he was captured? Here's what we know: The Iraq Survey Group interviewed scores of people, gaining access to information gleaned from Hussein during detention. In 2008, Hussein's interrogator for the group, George Piro of the FBI, told 60 Minutes what Hussein said while in custody. Piro, a native Arabic speaker, said Hussein told him he wanted to pursue weapons of mass destruction again. "He wanted to pursue all of WMD," Piro said. "So he wanted to reconstitute his entire WMD program." 60 Minutes asked: Chemical, biological, even nuclear? "Yes," Piro said. The best record publicly available supports McCain's statement, so we rule it True.

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