Secondly, comparing your guy to the guy who sold our secrets is not exactly the way to make your guy look good. For someone to become a "household name," he must do something interesting or notorious. Being an obscure candidate for US Senate in a state with much bigger names in the race doesn't make him either interesting or notorious.
Thirdly, the average person on the street probably doesn't know Manning's name. If you gave me the name without attaching his rank, I might not recognize the name. The guy should be punished for his crimes to the highest extent of the law, but his name is less important than other issues around the case. I try to keep up with current events, and the average voter is unlikely to remember Manning any more than I am.
This election will be about jobs and the economy. Unless Dr. Escoffery is clearly better than Mr. Rubio by a huge margin on these issues, no one is going to want to spend that much effort raising an obscure candidate to a winning position in 24 days. I'm guessing that most Floridians are also thinking about the impact of Deepwater Horizon oil on the tourist industry. Republicans should be foresighted enough to realize that unless there is gasoline to put in cars to drive to the beach, having clean beaches won't be enough to revive the tourist industry. Again, unless Dr. Escoffery is clearly better than Mr. Rubio by a huge margin on this issue, he's not going to get any traction.
If I were in Florida, I have some pet issues that could drive me into supporting a fringe candidate in the primary, but the importance of getting the Democrats out of power would force me to hold my nose and vote for a Republican in the general election.
I appreciate your post, I was only making the point about “name recognition” because I get sick of people saying that so and so is a great candidate for this office but he/she can’t win because they don’t have the “name recognition”... All I can do is help Dr. Escoffery clean up his website and help put his message out to the social media, because in the end I really think if folks take 5 mins to compare Dr. Escoffery to Marco Rubio or Charlie Crist they will come to the same conclusion that I have. While I appreciate your post I would encourage Floridians to support the BEST candidate in the PRIMARY! and for the U.S. Senate Seat in Florida, that is Dr. Escoffery, IMHO.
in response to the rest of your post. Up until this afternoon I figured I was going to be “forced” to vote for Rubio in the Primary until I got an e-mail from a friend asking me to take a look at Dr. Escoffery who I had never heard of. Instead of duing “internet research” I picked up my phone and called him. After a brief conversation I came to the conclusion that his story should be told and let the voters decide. I plan to help him clean up his website and help get his message out to as many Floridians as possible between now and the Primary (August 24th). Forget the “name recogination” and compare the LIFE STORY of Mr. Rubio and Dr. Escoffery and decide based on that who will BEST represent the State of Florida in the U.S. Senate.
Using that criteria I believe Dr. Escoffery wins hands down. HOWEVER, as a realist, I understand most voters will NOT take the time to do that and just pull the lever for the GOP’s “favorite” and that is a tragic. I hope the conservative people of Florida prove me wrong and vote for Dr. Escoffery for U.S. Senate on August 24th 2010.