Barack Obama is making a big push in Florida, greatly aided by a $40 million campaign, and a monumentally stupid — politically speaking — quote from John McCain in this month’s issue of Contingencies (see here).
According to John McCain:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide
competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would
provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst
excesses of state-based regulation.
Barack shot back:
So let me get this straight? He wants to run health care like they’ve been running Wall Street!
And McCain can’t claim he was misquoted: he wrote the article.
Chalk up another gaffe for McCain in his increasingly self-destructive run for president. It’s a gaffe that’s going to hurt his chances in Florida, where seniors think a lot about health care, retirement, and Social Security.
Speaking of elections, while going from one fund-raiser to another in Florida, today Obama added:
I’m confident that we’re going to win this thing. But can I
make this point? There are easier ways to win it and harder ways to win
it. It would be really nice for us to win Florida. I’ll tell you, we
can win this thing without Florida, but boy, it’s a lot easier if we
win Florida. If we win Florida, it is almost impossible for John McCain
to win.
Most pollsters give McCain a slight lead in Florida, but experts say it’s very close, and likely to come down to who better is able to get out the vote. According to the Wall Street Journal, the GOP has successfully put in two measures to suppress ballot-casting by younger, more mobile voters. Democrats have vowed, however, to defend the votes, and promise to have 5,000 volunteer lawyers on hand in the precincts.
According to this second piece in the WSJ:
The Obama campaign also says it has registered about 100,000 new
voters this year, part of 250,000 new registrants in the state overall,
and the majority of them are Democrats.Now comes the bigger task: making sure inexperienced voters can
navigate two new state laws. The first is the so-called "No match, no
vote" law, which requires a match between a voter’s driver’s license or
Social Security number and a government database. Critics say database
records are riddled with errors.A second law allows citizens to challenge the legitimacy of fellow
voters. Challengers need not prove their accusations. Instead, the
challenged voter has two days to justify his right to cast a ballot.State Republican lawmakers who pushed the law say it will help combat fraud. Democrats call it a vote-suppression measure.
Gee, why so cynical, Democrats?
Kit Stolz 