It’s been said so many times the economic problem is as much psychological as monetary that it must be true. Conveniently, we’ve just elected a president in part on the basis of how much he’s inspired us and given us hope. Last night, in his biggest speech since the inauguration,…
Oh, we know, we know, it’s so early in the campaign, but with State Senator and US Senate Candidate Dan Gelber’s announcement today that he’ll Twitter his way through the 60 day legislative session up in Tallahassee, we decided to role out a feature we’ve been toying with for a…
Possible Republican Senate Candidate Rep. Vern Buchanan took his speaking spot at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Manatee County this weekend to rile up the base, declaring, “We need to make English the official language of America.” It’s apparently nothing new for him, but we’re thinking his Senate campaign might…
Tomorrow on newsstands, we tell the story of Omar Khadr, who is the youngest detainee at Guantanamo, the only Westerner, and a symbol of sorts. To some, he is exhibit A for all that is wrong with America’s War on Terror. For others, he’s an example of why the camp…
Charlie Crist made some GOP eyes roll on Meet The Press this weekend when he declined to identify a national leader of the Republican Party. Instead he said that the people should lead the party, and that Obama is our only national leader. He’s right. We wish some other Republicans…
Charlie Crist, our new official Republican Boyfriend, was on Meet The Press this weekend carrying on his love affair with the stimulus package. Meanwhile, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, also known as 1/3 of Ronald Reagan’s soul-equivalent (Reagan, as most historians agrees, was indeed soulless) reincarnated in the body of a…
With a field for the 2010 Senate Race filled with a bunch of long shot candidates, everyone has to have a gimmick, because, hey, it worked for Walkin’ Lawton Chiles and Bob “Work Days” Graham. Dan Gelber promises to complete 100 days of public service and buy up a million…
The National Center of Poverty Law put out their annual Poverty Scorecard, and while scrolling through it we started seeing a pattern. Democrats were all getting As and A+s, while Republicans were all getting Cs, Ds and Fs. Take our Senators for example: Democrat Bill Nelson got an A+, Republican…
Last time President Obama had a surprise opening for Commerce Secretary The League of United Latin American Citizens sent a him a list of ten possible candidates including Mayor Manny Diaz. Well, here we are again with another opening for Commerce, and LULAC again sent their list. Missing this time? Manny…
Here is one of our local state House members, Republican J.C. Planas, belting out “Walking in Memphis” at Disney’s new American Idol attraction, as first seen on Naked Politics about a week ago. So far it only has 898 views. Which by YouTube standards is paltry, but by politician standards…
The economic stimulus is likely to be one of the defining actions of President Obama’s first term. If it’s perceived to be successful by November 2012, we’re more than likely looking at four more years. But if, even as Obama himself admitted last week in Fort Myers, it’s not, we…
So, last month, during one of those long, drawn-out, often-surreal meetings that local political bodies tend to have, Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower said something that could be construed as anti-Colombian: ”The drug dealers have a lot of money too.They’re from Colombia; they’re making all the money. They can come…
Robert Allen Stanford is the latest money manager accused of defrauding his investors out of billions. He is also the latest major Bill Nelson donor caught up in controversy. Yesterday, we told you about the tens of thousands of dollars Sen. Bill Nelson accepted from embattled lobbying firm PMA. Now we’re…
Oh, that Charlie Crist — he’s so popular. Quinnipiac, always interested in exactly how popular, finds that Charlie can be pretty much elected to anything he wants. But 41 percent of Floridians prefer he seeks re-election as governor, compared to 22 percent who would like to see him run for…
Last week, ABC News broke news that the FBI had raided PMA Group, a lobbying firm, this past November. PMA, which specialized in lobbying for earmarks for defense contracts, had close ties to Democratic Rep. John Murtha, but also donated heavily to other politicians — many of them Democrats, but…
Remember this Newt Gingrich fellow? I know he’s been pretty much irrelevant for the past ten years, but he used to be speaker of the house until he ran his public image into the ground by getting caught up in a few games of ethical limbo and becoming a polarizing…
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of some serious stuff right now, politically speaking. Oh, you know, greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, underfunded schools, a failing health-care system — that kind of stuff. Which is why we’re just so glad the Florida House spent a…
Former Gov. Jeb Bush sat down with the Wall Street Journal for a lil chitchat, and after getting it out of the way that he would never, ever want to be honored on President’s Day, he starts getting hyper-excited about the Swedish education system. “The idea that somehow Sweden would…
In our very important four-point treatise on netroots campaigning, we predicted “gay candidates will be the hot new netroots cause, just watch,” and now, right here in Florida, that theory will be put to the test. North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns will tomorrow officially kick off his campaign to seek the Senate seat…
Every month it seems Forbes puts out some dumb list of city rankings. Riptide always notes how dumb the list is, but posts about it anyway. Forbes appreciates any extra page views it gets, because that’s half the reason they do it, but at the end of the day, these…
This President Obama fellow has sure had a hard time filling his cabinet. After Gov. Richardson withdrew from consideration to be Commerce Secretary, Obama called on Republican Senator Judd Gregg to fill the slot. Turns out the Republican doesn’t see eye to eye ideologically with noted Socialist Barack Obama, and…
Floridians can only juggle the names of 4 or 5 state politicians in their heads at a time, and right now the only Democrat in the mix, Bill Nelson, is already in the Senate. So it’s not surprising that a new Strategic Vision poll shows Charlie Crist winning pretty much…
