Stop saying Florida is not winnable for the democrats!

[ringmastery]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8081991.htm

Democratic strategists believe that if they can peel away even a portion of the Cuban-American electorate, their nominee can win Florida -- and the White House -- just as President Clinton did in 1996, when he won an estimated 40 percent of the Cuban vote.

Bush won about 80 percent of the state's 400,000 Cuban-American voters in 2000 but won Florida by just 537 votes.

The poll results come as the Democratic National Committee is devising a strategy to court Cuban-American voters using a massive advertising campaign designed to paint Bush as insincere on the issues important to them.

''Cuban Americans are coming to the slow realization that the Republican administration they backed so heavily has not brought an end to the Castro regime,'' said Schroth, who also conducts polls for The Herald and some Democratic candidates. ``Sooner or later, voters begin to look elsewhere when they don't get satisfaction from any one political party.''

[bluestateguy]

1. Florida

FL is winnable, perhaps the most winnable in all of the South, but there are challenges. Jeb Bush will be in charge of counting the votes, so Kerry will have to win it by a touchdown so as to allow the state to be stolen. The SecState of Florida is a gubernatorial appointee. I still expect the Cuban vote to be heavily pro-Bush, though maybe not quite as much as last time. Haitians in Florida will be very pro-Kerry, as will Hispanics from Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Gays and younger voters in Florida will also vote for Kerry. Al Gore won 57% of the vote among 18-29 year olds in FL last time. Sometimes we pay a little too much attention to the senior vote in Florida.

[BOSSHOG]

2. The Democratic Candidate won the State in 2000!

and the democrat party candidate will win again in 2004 if Antonin Scalia will recuse himself of Democracy in America.

[w4rma]

7. DemocratIC Party (adjective before the noun) (n/t)

[BOSSHOG]

8. Thankyou

[Florida_Geek]

3. Yes but that was before Touchscreens

Look at the 14% spread Jeb received in 2002.

[Zynx]

4. That's what the final polls showed too. 14-16 points.

Sorry, but we ran a bad campaign in Florida and nation-wide. 2002 was just a bad year.

[ringmastery]

5. McBride sucked

He ignored the democratic base in South Florida to court moderate democrats and independents in Central and Northern Florida.

Simply put, the democrats in South Florida who largely favored Janet Reno felt ignored and taken for granted. They weren't energized and stayed home.

[watercolors]

13. ditto on McBride

we can win , the public is not happy with * or jeb. I have not heard too many people praisng *, I have heard a lot of I'm not voting for him again. And you can bet not a lot of seniors are in his camp!

[BL_Zebub]

16. Mc Bride was a sacrificial lamb,replacing the real candidate.

Kinda like Kerry....

[w4rma]

6. Personally, I don't trust that the votes will be counted fairly in Florida

I don't think that Dems go all out for Florida if that means that resources won't get to another state where the voting isn't (as?) flawed.

[ringmastery]

9. That's paranoia and silly conspiracy thinking

2004 will NOT be a repeat of 2000. There's no way republicans will play those games again. Everyone will be WATCHING this time, especially the media.

[madfloridian]

14. But you are assuming they *care* who is watching them.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood does not answer to the legislature anymore, only to Jeb. It is her decision that recounts will not ever be needed, that computer voting is fine, no paper trail needed.

She simply does not care what we think, or who is watching.

[w4rma]

18. Sure they would. Just like in Texas, where they broke campaign laws

and then after their people got into office, they got caught, and paid a fine and are still in office and now have the advantage of incumbancy and a GOP-favorable redistricted Texas.

[MessiahRp]

10. My Problem with hoping for FL is summed up in two words: Jeb Bush

I just don't trust someone who is the brother of the President, who is a signing member of the PNAC, and whom worked very hard and spent tons of state dollars last election cycle to scrub tens of thousands of Democratic voters off the rolls with Katherine Harris and has yet to repair the mistakes done in 2000.

He is the obstacle, no matter the true vote count.

Rp

[ithacan]

11. pandering to anti-Castro Cubans is the LAST thing Dems should do

if they want to attract their votes on other issues, fine.

But the Dems should not try to out-Bush the Bushies on regime change. If they do that, why bother.

[genius]

12. The voting's rigged. Computers changed McBride to Bush in 2002

I got emails from people who tried to vote for McBride and saw their votes changed before their eyes.

[BL_Zebub]

15. I wonder how many of the Miami Cubans realize that it was Poppy Bush

Who fucked up the Bay of Pigs operation in the first place, and that the CIA, through George Sr and Jebbie, have been stringing them along ever since?

These folks are rabidly right wing, so they're not likely to vote for a Demoncratic candidate, but they might be persuaded to vote against a Bush :evilgrin:

[WilliamPitt]

17. Florida is not winnable for the democrats

Spend the wasted Florida money on Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, West Virginia and Missouri. Ballgame.