Posted on 08/18/2006 5:48:27 AM PDT by SFCGeraldRTostensen
Fans continue to support Katherine Harris, despite the candidate's lack of party support and her low poll ratings.
''Agua? Could we have some agua?'' the woman asked, in the banquet room of a restaurant in Hialeah, before Katherine Harris arrived to stump.
Two years of high school Spanish will take you further than you think and soon the waitress brought some, along with milk in mugs and a pitcher of coffee.
''This is café con leche,'' the woman explained to her companions. ``It's Cuban coffee. Isn't it so good?''
They sipped. It was.
They were three Anglos in a roomful of Hispanics. They were college students: Jessica Benton and Holly Curro from Liberty University, Jerry Falwell's Baptist institution in Virginia, and Angela Cheatham from Johnson and Wales, the non-denominational culinary arts and business school in North Miami.
They wore jeans and Harris-for-Senate T-shirts. They'd driven down from Fort Lauderdale and this seemed to be their first experience with the Hialeah street grid. ''The numbers go up and down, and the avenues turn into roads -- it's like, where are we?'' Holly said.
This was their second rally. Their first was last week in West Palm Beach, where they handed out bumper stickers and campaign literature and possibly won over hearts and minds. No fewer than three people approached them afterwards to say they'd decided to vote for Harris. ''We were like, yes!'' Jessica said.
Their candidate has, it must be said, some baggage. People say mean things about her mascara and her purging of voter rolls in the 2000 presidential election. They say she lags 30 percentage points behind the incumbent, Democrat Bill Nelson, in polls. They say she should save everyone the embarrassment and just quit. They say a lot of things.
''So many people, when they finally get to hear a person, they change their minds,'' Jessica said. ``And the press, you know, changes things.''
This made for some awkwardness but fortunately the stumping soon began: first a Hummer-load of aides pulled up, then the candidate herself, in the back seat of a gray Chevrolet.
''She always looks so beautiful,'' said one Sy Bonem, who said he was an ex-professional baseball player and a big Harris fan. ``She's a real beautiful woman.''
She was not an unattractive woman. She wore a blue jacket and creme skirt and matching heels and a huge smile.
She took the stage with Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and Guillermo Maldonado, a Kendall evangelist who says he was told by several prophets and God himself that his congregation will one day comprise 10 percent of Miami's population.
Harris mentioned marriage taxes and death taxes, which Bill Nelson apparently loves, and traditional values, which he apparently despises. She mentioned her intention to abolish federal income taxes and the Internal Revenue Service, which drew polite applause.
Before a crowd that was almost entirely composed of immigrants -- college students and Sy excepted -- she did not mention, as she did in Orange Park in June, that ''our bleeding wound is our borders,'' which was probably wise.
She finished and started shaking hands, working her way to the back of the room where the college students were.
She smiled hugely.
They smiled hugely back.
''I appreciate ya'll coming,'' she said.
''Thank you,'' they said.
The candidate shook more hands and an aide checked her teeth for lipstick. And when it was time for her to give interviews for the television cameras, the college students were there, nodding solemnly to everything she said.
Maybe, but keep in mind that she was the only one qualified to run against Nelson except for Jeb Bush. Bush declined to run, and no other credible Republican candidate stepped up to the plate until literally at the last minute, when 3 no-name jokers signed up in desperation to challenge her in the primary.
You Harris bashers simply need to back off of her and just let the primary run its course. If she loses, she loses...but what business is it of you guys if she does? She's an adult, she made a decision. The way you people criticize her you'd think she was an unelected Ruler or Queen or something.
"Lawmakers are told in advance how to vote on a particular issue to keep up their tallies."
Let's start with claiming that her campaign event was poorly attended because a tree fell on the airplane hangar that was the original location, when apparently she is the only person who has any knowledge that this happened or even that the event was moved.
BUMP
BUMP
BUMP
Your posts are worth repeating!
It's hit pieces....the lousy MSM... that continually throw dirt in KH's face! Oftentimes they're subtle about it as is the case here.
Collins hasn't got a chance nobody knows him This family is voting K.Harris and Gallagher.
At this point, sadly, being unknown offers a better chance than Harris has. You're welcome to vote for who you want, but I believe that a vote for Harris is a vote for Nelson. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is.
Thats all you know isn't it? How many times have you said that?
Thanks for helping us out here.I;m glad you don't vote here.
Beth it's a Harris thread here come all of the out of state experts that can't vote to help us out.I think they need to get a life.
I'll bump that.
You know what i think you can mind your own business..I will post on any thread I feel like posting on..it sounds like you are worried someone might read my post and vote for Harris..In that case I hope they do..You get a life and stay out of mine..
Beth your reading me wrong I'm with you and we are voting for Harris.
I am sorry,I just have been so upset with all the liberals bashing Harris..I really am sorry..She is what Florida needs...
If i had of read your above post then I would not have made that mistake..Lots of luck and i will be praying that God puts the best person in that seat..
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