The Problem with the Florida Governor's Race

self | 10/11/02 | me

[summer]

FYI - Gov Bush's Accomplishments

Where is McMumble's record on the issues of concern to FL voters??? Where are McMumble's actual positions on these issues? Where is something beside mumbling from your preferred candidate???

[summer]

Re my above posts: he eve = he even

[js1138]

If the pubbies don't have poll watchers, shame on them. I think it was wise of Jeb to call for federal election monitors. We know where the dem precincts are. any statistical anomaly should trigger an investigation.

[caltrop]

summer, after the volumes we've exchanged I'd have thought you'd have given up trying to sell me on JEB's performance by having me read his press releases by now. I've been watching JEB for eight years. The guy's a Rockefeller Republican who does just enough to snow those conservatives who, like wives whose husbands run around, choose to believe what they want to believe.

[ghostrider]

If all was as simple as you say, then I might see it as you. But it is not so simple.

He promised to cut the size of government, and he DID

Yes he did. He simply said to cut each agency 25 percent. There was little effort to explain where, how, or why. Much of the cut was shifting money from state workers to private contractors without detailed explanations to show savings or which contractors may have been big contributors.

And, you can ask just about any Dem voter who works in state government, and they will tell you all above "Service First," Gov. Bush's initiative to cut government.

I know Demos and Repos that work in State government. I am not going to get into a debate about that spin other than to mention that it was discredited by the consultant that the State hired to justify it. I would be very curious to see the sample of state workers that you used to draw any positive conclusions about Service First.

parents to have more choice in education - and FL is the only state in this country to have not one, not two, but three voucher programs

This is all true, but again it is simplistic. I have kids in the school public system, and it is degraded to a shameful state. Most of the mess is the result of malignant liberal ideas and was happening before Jeb. However, nothing has improved except the campaign yarns.

Did you want every voter to run away from a solid record that you two both ignore?

Even clinton claimed to have a solid record - and still does. Even the so-called debates were like this. Claim and counter claim. No detailed analysis of facts. They were just a superficial polishing of campaign spins.

I am not a Dem and I am not a McBride supporter. I am an American with an opinion, and I am sick and tired of politicians and political parties trying trample on those with opinions different to their own and to negatively motivate us with hate messages (Demos==> filth, race & illiteracy ; Repos==> lardbricks, tax cuts & abortion). On the bottom line neither party really cares much about the American people, who are merely vassals to be used in their pursuit of power - and control of the enormous funds in government coffers. And, I am absolutely disgusted with a political process is so totally funded by external special interest money that local voters are no longer of consequence. Clearly political donations are nothing more than legal bribes run amuck.

Our political processes and oligopoly media are so corrupt and stuffed with big money, that I see no way for the hypothetical American Democracy to function as a true democracy. Indeed the last few years of nationwide election fraud shows that we are fast becoming a Banana Republic Democracy. In the end, caltrop's idea of split government seems to be the best our bad choices. As in the old west, when they couldn't defend themselves from the thieves and murderers, they often hired one to fight the other.

[summer]

I have kids in the school public system, and it is degraded to a shameful state

ghostrider, I teach in FL's public school system, and I can tell you that parents I have met told me they pulled their kids out of private school to go to a school they believed was better, based on the school grade and parents' comments, and that school is a public school.

In addition, FL under Gov Bush has more Nationally Certified teachers than every state but one, and before Gov Bush took office, we had amost none. Teachers are working hard in this state, and there is nothing "shameful" about that.

Also, FL has one of the most difficult student populations in the country, as it is highly transient, with lots of migrants workers, and, it has many students who do not speak English as a first language.

If you are unhappy with your public school, look for a better one, and you can thank Gov Bush for encouraging school districts to offer you the option to choose whatever public school you want. Surely there is a better one not too far from wherever you live. Even Bill McMumble won't take his kids out of public schools here in FL, and if the schools were really as bad as he says they are, I am sure he would have taken his kids out long ago.

As for your other comments - I think political leaders who try to change the existing systems have it rough, because no matter what they do, people are highly critical. State workers hated Service First (even though, BTW, they all got raises after 9-11 at a time when others in the country were being laid off), and people like you claim it was not good enough.

I still say what Gov Bush did is better than a candidate like McMumble who has no plans to do anything.

[summer]

I'd have thought you'd have given up

caltrop, you are such a thoughtful person that I maintain hope you will someday give Gov Bush a fair evaluation. :)

[ghostrider]

That's your typical response. Party mantra...blah, blah blah! I would have hoped that a teacher would spend more time teaching folks to broadly look at the issues and to think for themselves. A teacher should respect the right of people to see things differently and search for the whole truth, rather than to slam those who don't have their narrow view of things.

[summer]

I respect your right to see things differently, but you rarely take into account the views of people like me - those who out there in the classroom. In addition, "party mantra"? I'm not even in the GOP. I wrote over 20 articles on my own, about why I support Gov Bush -- and, many of those articles concern education. Click on my screen name and read the articles if you are as open-minded as you claim. Many of the issues I wrote about have never been mentioned in this race, even though I think they should have been discussed.

[summer]

I meant: those who are out there in the classroom

[summer]

In light of the current DC sniper, here's an example of something that was swept under the rug not once, but 28 times when teachers were murdered in this country, including at Columbine. Each time, the teachers union did nothing -- but when it happened only once in FL, and teachers turned to Gvo Bush, he responded immediately.

FL remains the only state in this country where a slain teacher's family receives the same comprehensive benefit package as a slain firefighter or slain policeman's family:

'The Jeb Bush Nobody Knows' - Part 4: How Jeb Financially Helped Families of Slain Teachers, With a New Law Providing New Benefits, the "Barry Grunow Act"

I think Gov Bush should have made a tv commercial about this, and mentioned how the teachers union, which had millions to spend on McMumble's tv commercials, from teacher dues, could never find the time to compensate slain teachers' families -- until AFTER Gov Bush took action.

[ghostrider]

Click on my screen name and read the articles if you are as open-minded as you claim.

If you will recall, I did that months ago. That's when I posed a few questions to you that set you off like a volcanic blast. Which is why I quit responding to your posts. I should have continued to ignore your posts and will in the future.

[summer]

Gvo Bush = Gov Bush

[summer]

See my poist #31 - I picked out one you should read, if you really cared about anything.

[summer]

See my post #31 - I picked out one you should read, if you really cared about anything.

[summer]

That's when I posed a few questions to you that set you off like a volcanic blast

LOL....as I recall, and the entire exchange is on some thread, you became incensed that I was NOT in the GOP and was NOT spouting the "party mantra" you love to complain about.

[longtermmemmory]

No, I probably older than you sonny.

A divided government is not in our best interst since the Governor appoints the judges and will be in a position to appoint judges to the fl supreme court.

You have given no valid reason to not vote for Bush.

Vote Bush, it is best for Florida.