Posted on 08/13/2003 5:58:48 AM PDT by NYC Republican
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, says Florida will play a crucial role in the president's re-election strategy next year.
Rove, in an interview with editors and reporters of The News Herald of Panama City, said the campaign strategy in Florida would be a combination of "brotherly love" - a reference to the president's younger brother, Gov. Jeb Bush - and an effort to "register, identify and turn out our vote."
"This clearly is going to be ground zero," Rove said in the interview, published in Wednesday's editions. Rove has been vacationing in northwest Florida, where he has been making trips for the past 16 years.
Florida, now with 27 electoral votes, decided the 2000 presidential election and is expected to be a battleground state next year.
Rove said the strategy would not likely change if Florida Sen. Bob Graham was on the Democratic ticket - as the presidential or vice presidential nominee.
"Frankly we're not focused on it," he said.
Rove said the Bush administration understands the frustrations of military families who are anxious for the return of their loved ones in Iraq. But he said the protracted stays of many service members are a result of a military "stretched thin."
"Our military, when it gets into Afghanistan and Iraq, is taxed," he said.
Rove said the administration is committed to the rebuilding of Iraq and hopes by this time next year to have "a country clearly on the road toward a democratic, market-oriented, secular state."
Having said that, I'm glad this political genius is on our side.
You can say that again.
Wrong on both counts. I live here and was with some friends that night who cancelled their plans to go vote because they heard on TV that it was all over and Gore had won the state.
I don't know where you got your "facts" but I would advise against freely distributing incorrect information.
Here in the Florida Panhandle, we are on Central time which, obviously, puts us a hour behind the rest of the state on election night. We are also home to a number of military bases and an electorate which is heavily Republican. A lot of innocent people believed what they heard on TV and thought the whole thing was already decided before they could even leave their homes to go vote.
My business at that time involved extensive travel throught the panhandle. I actually went through one of the road blocks that the NAACP claimed prevented blacks from voting. Hogwash. I met with many people every day, and when I was in my car I always listened to one of three local talk radio shows plus the national shows. I read the pensacola news journal daily.
In other words, I was there, a participant (not a bystander) and in the thick of things. There's FReepers here who could vouch for that.
In all that time, I never heard a single story of any single voter who claimed to not vote because of the early call. Not only that, I never even heard of any rumor of anyone who 'had a friend' or 'knew of someone' who didn't vote.
Claiming that people in the panhandle didn't vote because the networks called the election 11 minutes early truly dishonors those who live in the panhandle and implies that they are too stupid to know when their polls close. It also makes people have to believe that honest sincere people waited until the last 10 minutes and then turned around and left.
Like you said, there are plenty of military and retirees there, and they typically vote early. The panhandle isn't a crowded place and about the only traffic problem is hwy 98 between FWB and Destin.
Odd how there were supposedly thousands and thoughsands of voters who didn't vote because of hte national news media and yet there weren't any individuals idnetified by the local media.
The 10k panhandle voters are right there with the blacks who were turned away by the cops.
That is the very first report of that I have seen in print, heard in person or on the broadcast media.
It is too bad that you friends wer so dedicated voters that they waited until the last minute then were so dedicated that they didn't vote for any other office.
Personally, I believe that anyone who makes that claim never intended to vote but uses that excuse to save face.
Odd how that works, isn't it?
You seem to live in a land of assumptions.
These people had just gotten off work and came home to pick up their wives to go vote. Then they hear it's all over.
How very presumtious of you to assign motives, to my friends, that fit yoour agenda.
Thanks, Joe B!
An issue that is a concern in the '04 election is the Cuban American vote in Florida. Fox's Orlando Salinas recently reported rumblings of discontent regarding US/Cuba policies.
Excerpt from The Miami Herald
from article entitled Changes among Cuban Americans by Michael PutneyThe extent to which it's already roiled is reflected in the extraordinary letter sent to the president on Monday by 13 South Florida GOP state representatives. In language that's courteous but direct, they tell the president to match his actions to his rhetoric on Cuba or risk losing Cuban-American votes next year.
A similar letter went to the White House last week from directors of the Cuban American National Foundation, which threatens to cut off its checks as well as its votes.
Meaningful change is unlikely in Cuba. But meaningful change is happening among Cuban Americans and their traditional allegiance to the GOP. The day may have arrived when it takes more to win their vote than coming to town and repeating that mantra, ``¡Cuba, sí; Castro, no!''
* * *
There is no doubt the dems will exploit every demographic group to defeat President Bush. The most benign of 'the nine' candidates has already begun.
Lieberman Urges Bush to Pressure Cuba
.............................................and then we must be on the alert for voter fraud.
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