Posted on 09/07/2001 3:04:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
You have to give Janet Reno credit. She sure knows how to make people happy. Her decision to run for governor has them applauding in South Florida, where Democrats have long sought one of their own to run the nation's fourth-most-populous state.
National Democrats are smiling because her national name will allow them to raise a zillion dollars from outside the Sunshine State to avenge the 2000 presidential outcome.
And you don't see many long faces at Republican headquarters in Tallahassee, or, for that matter, at the White House, which views Florida as the single most important state in the 2004 presidential contest.
If the Republicans could pick Gov. Jeb Bush's opponent next year, they would want one with an expansive view of government, a record of controversy and no statewide campaign experience.
Given that Hillary Clinton already has a job, former Attorney General Reno is the next best option.
Obviously, either South Florida Democrats or the GOP are wrong. What is good for one must be bad for the other.
Perhaps the best indication comes from one group that isn't particularly happy about Ms. Reno's candidacy -- Democratic leaders around the state.
Like Republicans and most everyone else who can count, they believe that she is likely to win the nomination and lose the November election.
The Democratic establishment's candidate is former Panhandle congressman and Vietnam War hero Pete Peterson. They hope his views and values, although far removed from those of Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale, will be more palatable in North and Central Florida's crucial swing precincts.
Maybe yes; maybe no.
Peterson's strategy is predicated on his winning the Democratic primary election without pledging allegience to liberal orthodoxy. Otherwise, even if he could defeat Reno, he would become captive of positions that would make him a pariah elsewhere in the state. Her candidacy makes that strategy much more difficult to implement.
We've seen this movie before. It's a rerun of what happened to the Democratic Party nationally in the 1980s. Core party activists -- blacks, feminists, unions, environmentalists and gays -- viewed Ronald Reagan much as these same groups currently view Bush, as the political anti-Christ.
But they failed to appreciate that Americans liked Reagan for many of the same reasons the activists hated him. They offered a shrill campaign in which traditional liberal Walter Mondale defeated more centrist candidates John Glenn and Gary Hart by calling for raising taxes, kissing the rings of special-interest groups and raiding the federal Treasury. Mondale carried only his home state of Minnesota against Reagan. Four years later, nominee Michael Dukakis wondered why everyone wasn't an ACLU member and predictably got wasted in November by Bush the senior.
Neither Mondale nor Dukakis got it, because they were from Minnesota and Massachusetts respectively, which on the national stage occupy the same out-of-touch role with the overall electorate that South Florida does in Sunshine State politics.
Clearly, the political playing field has changed since then -- Americans are less distrustful of government. And despite his warm personality, no one would mistake Jeb for the Gipper when it comes to communications skills.
But elections are about ideas, and Reno's presence will ensure that the governor's race focuses on government's role in our daily lives. That divide historically has favored Republicans in the South, where the general feeling is that the best government governs least.
But Reno believes in an expanded government role. So far, she has ducked direct questions about whether she would roll back Jeb Bush's tax cuts. But her call for government to do more, and her criticism of Bush for shrinking government, reducing the state payroll and the taxes that fund services she says are needed are sure signs of her campaign themes.
And her Justice Department's role in the deaths of 75 people at the Branch Dividian compound in Waco, Texas, and in the return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba can't help but re-inforce the notion of her believing in all-powerful government.
Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe Florida's demographics have changed so much that the state's view of government's role has shifted toward the South Florida norm.
But then, you might see University of Florida football coach Steve Spurrier doing FSU's Tomahawk Chop. Reno's chances are better than that, but not by much.
Peter A. Brown can be contacted at 407-420-5276 or pbrown@orlandosentinel.com
Oh Great! You mean we're going to be ground zero again?!?
=8^0)
BTW - Good Read. Thanks for the post.
LOL, not a bad name for the antireno effort. ; )
Reno for Guv? Recall *this*
You've heard the blather- now look at the record...
...and pass this on--
--The WACO horror--
Waco producer: Weapons photos falsified
FBI, Delta Force, ATF, All fire Shots into Mt. Carmal killing children
-David T. Hardy: An Interview With American Gun Owners' Best Friend ( & Waco )--
WACO: The truth seeps out good info web page
More Waco links from The War Room:
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But they're the marching morons and good for nightly news lessons on victimization.
Can't underestimate the power of Vote Fraud, stupidity, and cupidity, though.
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