Senate

Charlie Crist In Deep Trouble In Florida Senate Race

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Governor Charlie Crist is in deep trouble in his bid to win a Senate seat in Florida this coming November.

In one poll, he is behind former State House Speaker Marco Rubio 47-44 percent in the state Republican primary race. In another more disastrous poll, Crist is behind by 14 points, 44-30!

Conservative Republicans, self identified, preferred Rubio 52-27 percent, while moderates preferred Crist by 43-35 percent.

Speculation is that Crist might decide to run as an Independent, and make the Senate race three ways, with Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek. But that would make it hard for him to run for the Presidency, if he ever chose to do that, if he abandoned his party in his Senate run this year, and defeated Rubio in November.

One such poll indicates that Crist could win 25 percent of Democrats and of Republicans, and 41 percent of Independents.

Crist would still be the better general election nominee against Kendrick Meek, but if he cannot win the GOP nomination and does not run as an Independent, then his career is over.

So will Crist take his chances and remain in the GOP primary, or decide to go Independent, have a good chance at winning the election in a three way race, and give up any hopes of running for President in the future?

I would think that for Crist to believe seriously that he could be President in a party that is going to the far right is to be living in a fantasy world! What is wrong with being an independent minded senator who wishes to do a good job and make a career in that chamber, and forget the “impossible dream” of being President?

My prediction is that Charlie Crist, after the legislative session in Florida ends, and he has signed all the bills into law, will announce that he is running as an Independent, knowing by so doing that the only way he could run for President in the future is as an independent, third party candidate, which would mean he would be a spoiler, nothing more!

Brisk Economic Growth In 4th Quarter Good Sign!

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Great news has been announced by the government this morning, indicating that we have witnessed the fastest growth quarter in six years in the last three months of 2009.

The economy grew by an annualized 5.7 percent, way above what was expected, and far better than the annualized 2.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

The biggest fear, however, is that we could be in the midst of what economists call a “jobless” economic recovery, so there is a great need for an aggressive job creation program this year, but one wonders if the opposition Republican party will work to undermine such an event by lack of legislative support, particularly in the Senate. 🙁 Let’s hope they do what is right for the American people!

Pathbreaking Moment: Senate Overcomes GOP Filibuster On Health Care Reform!

Ronald 1 Comment

After a long, drawn out, highly partisan debate that has gone on for months, the Senate this morning passed a necessary step toward cloture to overcome a filibuster, and move toward later this week agreeing to a landmark health care reform bill.

Of course, even after a final vote expected to be held on Christmas Eve, the hardest job of all will be early next year to promote a conference committee report of both houses of Congress, reconciling different aspects of the bill that will be very difficult to gain compromise on, including the issue of abortion, the public option in the House bill, and funding and taxing health care in a way that will not add to the burgeoning national debt.

In many ways, the concept of victory seems elusive, as one has to wonder how the two houses will come up with a common bill. It will require statesmanship and moderation to accomplish what has been an elusive goal for nearly a century: health care reform, which even if this resolves itself, is still only a beginning step toward total reform at some point down the road in future time.

While this issue has become highly partisan, it seems to me that even this imperfect bill passed in both houses of Congress will ultimately be a plus for the Democrats, as much as Social Security and Medicare were in previous generations. The unwillingness of Republicans to work on a common goal for health care will not make them look good in the future and in historical perspective!