Amen Amen, Howard Troxler of the St. Pete Times. Dems SHOULD run someone for FL governor

[madfloridian]

I have lately done a lot of wondering about where the heck is Alex Sink?

Her opponent for governor, the very right wing Bill McCollum, is suing over the health care reform bill. He is supporting the Florida legislature's Republicans who are about to destroy the careers of teacher who are devoted to their profession.

Where is Alex on this issue? Mostly silent. Teachers under this bill will find their advanced degrees don't matter, their experience and caring doesn't matter. Only one test matters. As far as I can tell, crickets from Alex.

We worked for her hubby, Bill McBride, when he ran against Jeb. We worked hand in hand with one of the local Republicans who knew what Jeb was up to. I remember just before he lost the election, we worked with those Republicans to call the campaign office and ask why they were refusing to stand up for important issues. We had handed them much info to use about things going on in the state.

I remember the debate where Bill smiled a lot, and Jeb ran over him like a steamroller.

Now Alex Sink is doing the same thing Bill did in that 2002 campaign. Failing to stand up for important issues, failing to speak up when it was demanded and needed. Doing the DLC campaign practice of being bipartisan to a fault.

Howard Troxler says it well, and Alex Sink needs to listen. She would be a great governor, but she is failing to be a good candidate.

MacKay, McBride, Davis … Sink?

It would be better if the Democrats ran somebody for governor this year. It seems unsporting to let the probable Republican nominee, Bill McCollum, waltz into the job. This is not out of any disrespect for McCollum. Rather my bias is always toward a good contest. So the Democrats ought to come up with a candidate, which, at last check, they have not done.

The trouble with Democrats (if you do not mind sweeping generalizations, and if you do, too bad) is that they run because they are convinced of their own merits, and that Republicans are bad. Yet they rarely remember to go about the crucial task of winning the most votes in the election. This is a tiresome flaw. After all, there are more Democrats than Republicans in Florida, but you would not know it. The Republicans have a strong majority in the Legislature and all but one seat on the state Cabinet. Florida has had a Republican governor for the past 12 years straight and is leaning toward making it 16

McCollum is well ahead of her now in polls. I have been waiting for her to make a big move.

But for the Democrats since then — pish! They all ran the same race. They ran as if they were running for class president. They ran as if the winner would be chosen by a committee of philosophers. They ran as if the Governor's Mansion would go to the candidate with the highest SAT score. In short, they assumed that the people of the state had to recognize their merit sooner or later. This is always disastrous.

These days, some people say that Alex Sink, our state's chief financial officer and the only Democrat in the Cabinet, would be a good candidate for governor. Since she has not actually engaged in a campaign so far, it is impossible to tell how she would do in one, but the road map of what she should not do is crystal clear.

She cannot hem and haw her way into the job. She cannot duck questions, dodge issues, or run and hide inside her office whenever somebody asks her something tough, while her oh-so-loyal, oh-so-protective, oh-so-worshipful aides cry out, "No more questions! No more questions!"

Nope. If Alex Sink were going to run for governor, she would need to get out there and stick it to the Republicans.

Amen to Troxler.

And now that I think about it, where are the other Florida Democratic leaders and candidates while teachers are being handed their heads on a silver platter?

Troxler is right about Florida Democrats. They run as if they were running for class president. They are fearful of issues, preferring instead to be bipartisan in all things.

The very essence of failure.

[csziggy]

1. Maybe Sink is just saving her powder for the post primaries

And hoping that McCollum will screw up before the primaries are over.

I HOPE that is the case since I've been wondering where the hell she is. I put my info on her campaign site to volunteer and have not been contacted, even for donations.

[madfloridian]

2. We get her emails.

She asks for donations that way.

I think McCollum is 15 points ahead of her now. I never thought that would happen.

[csziggy]

6. I guess I need to sign up on her website again

Problem is I can't donate any money, maybe just some time. I had far too much money go out for medical expenses in the last year so I have no spare cash.

There is still time before the election for her to recover, if she gets her campaign in gear. I'd actually be worried if she were far ahead at this point. I just wish more of these Republican party scandals were coming closer to the election, LOL!

[peace frog]

17. Oh, I knew it would happen

If McCollum knows how to do anything, it's grandstand with an eye toward maximizing teabagger votes.
If Sink knows how to do anything, it's disappear. At this point, she doesn't have a prayer of catching up to the despicable McCollum.
Bottom line = Florida loses. BIG TIME.

[librechik]

3. did the Dems cloan her off a Coakley cell? Why can't we clone Grayson instead??

[madfloridian]

4. The comments are mostly in agreement with the OP

One of the comments:

"Amen, Howard. Ms. Sink's apologists remark on how smart she is to have avoided controversial positions and for uttering vague platitudes and generalities. She may be super-smart, but she acts like her soul has been exposed to deadly Kryptonite. Like her equally smart and admirable husband Bill McBride in 2002, she is morphing into the Incredible Shrinking Candidate.

Her opponent's major strength is pandering, and the political party he represents is a shambles, humiliated by one self-serving or openly corrupt political hack after another. Yet, they are set to run the table again in November, leaving the Democratic Party as the one humiliated (again!) by its own candidate's ineptitude. I earnestly hope Ms. Sink and her team read this and are sufficiently offended to find their spines and their voices, and to launch an actual candidacy for the governorship of Florida. If that's what Ms. Sink wants, which is not at all clear."


It's sad how Florida Democratic candidates act. Anyone heard much from Kendrick Meeks lately?

[tosh]

5. Kendrick was on an evening news show this week

but I can't remember which one. It had to be MSNBC for me to have seen it.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. You would think that the Dems...................

would have learned by now that this passive mode of campaigning WILL NOT WORK! We've seen Republicans from Dukakis on, beat passive Dems. The above poster was right. She needs to take some "Alan Grayson" lessons.

[madfloridian]

8. That's a good way to put it.

"passive" mode.

For years I have noticed FL Dems acting in that mode.

[socialist_n_TN]

9. It's a nationwide problem with Dems........................

mad, not just in Florida. They got so used to being the minority party for so much of the last 30 years, along with being scared shitless of being called a "liberal", that they don't know how to act anymore when they have a chance to win an election. And that's ESPECIALLY true of southern Dems. We've got the same problem in Tennessee.

IMO, if your going down, go down swinging and standing for something.

[Dr.Phool]

10. Troxler is dead on.

I know Alex. She's too squeamish. A very nice person, but just doesn't have the fight to beat a complete asshole like McCollum.

Any decent Dem candidate would be screaming for the entire Florida Legislature to be swinging on a gallows. Not a peep from her. And they're running double attack ads against her 24/7. Not a response.

[madfloridian]

11. She's a lovely person. Would be a great governor.

But she is too cautious about speaking out.

[madfloridian]

12. Looks like today she said she opposed Sen bill 6.

That is a good thing.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/4/1/852964/-The-Next-Governor-of-Florida.

[JCMach1]

13. McCollum is a toad and the race is just getting started

I am still hopeful.

[madfloridian]

16. I am still hopeful.

But Troxler said much that was true.

We felt the same frustration from the McBride campaign as we do now.

We need her badly for governor, but she needs to find her campaign voice.

[JCMach1]

18. McBride's 'big' mistakes were much later in the campaign... i.e. after the primary

Seems as if Sink's fundraising is going well though.



McCollum has only ever won one statewide race, the position he is in now... :puke: and got that more or less by default.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. It must be a Florida thing.

Once the Republican noise machine takes over, it's nearly impossible to put reason into any argument. You have to be even louder than the noise machines if you're going to have a go at it. Grayson seems to know how to do it. Although, I'm beginning to have a new respect for Kosmas. She's quiet, but votes when it matters. If she can come in with federal money to revive her ailing district, I think she's going to beat the competition.

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. I found Alex Sink:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/04/sink-rpof-scandal-requires-an-independent-prosecutor.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fpolitics%2Fpoliticalpulse+%28Central+Florida+Political+Pulse%29