By Tom Bortnyk
PoHo correspondent

There is no doubt that Sarah Palin has every intention in the world of running for higher office. You could see it in her twinkling eye as she made the announcement that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.

Will she host her own talk show? Will she get a book deal? Speculation has run rampant, but the consensus among the political news commentators seems to be that she is gearing up for a run for president in 2012.

Oddly enough, this news is exciting for many Republicans. To quite a large sect of the conservative base, Palin is a rock star. She is the answer to their prayers, and the savior of the Party.

Such an analysis is misguided, at best. More accurately, it could be described as delusional.

The media went out in full force to destroy any credibility she had at the beginning of the race. They successfully painted her as dumb and uninformed, with limited oratory skills; certainly a stark comparison to the smooth-talking Obama, whom the media worked hard to characterize as a godsend.

Some of it was propaganda, and some of it was not. Facts were distorted and myths were created, and it didn’t help that Palin’s gaffes ingrained her buffoonery into the minds of the average voter.

But Palin’s problems aren’t all rooted in the malpractice of the media; to the contrary, Palin herself has done more than enough to destroy her own electability. One of the most notable problems is her Peggy Hill persona that she can’t seem to shed. Americans have trouble viewing her as the leader of the free world when all they see in front of them is a slightly dim hockey mom. Her “Joe Six-Pack” rhetoric may have earned her a few fans among the red-state working class, but most people just roll their eyes; Americans don’t want to be patronized.

I’m rather surprised that more Republicans haven’t turned against Palin. The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of ideas and innovation, yet Palin supporters seem content listening to her regurgitated rhetoric.

Another disturbing trend is Palin’s constant pandering to the base. Republicans should reject pandering and start listening to new ideas, or better yet, returning to tried-and-true conservative principles. Rovian politics may have worked wonders in the past, but Obama’s campaign victory was a game changer. In order to win, Republicans have to adopt new tactics and leave liabilities like Palin behind. Don’t worry about social conservatives and the “family values” voters; they’ll vote Republican anyway, even if they do so begrudgingly.

In the end, however, it doesn’t matter if Palin were as brilliant as Milton Friedman and as charismatic as Reagan; at this point, she has become a toxic asset. If the GOP wants to win, they’re going to need to do better. It’s nothing personal; she’s a very nice lady. Americans just can’t shake that image of Tina Fey whimsically saying “I can see Russia from my house!”

Tom Bortnyk is a student at Florida State University.

By Tom Bortnyk
PoHo correspondent

The notorious Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara spent his entire life fighting the evils of capitalism and murdered anyone who did not agree with his socialist agenda. Yet here we are today, in 21st century America, where any hipster can walk into a Target super-store and buy a Che T-shirt and a “Yes We Can” poster. Apparently the college students wearing the shirts missed the chapter on irony in English 101; they must have been attending a “hope & change” rally. Politics, it seems, has become just as much of a battle of commercialism as PC vs. Mac or Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi.

There is no doubt that this is a distinctly 21st century phenomenon. Mass media and explosion of the internet into every household has only fueled America’s consumer culture, to the point where even our political candidates must be marketed and sold. If Billy Mays were still around, and the Sham-Wow guy didn’t beat up a hooker, odds are good we’d see them recruited for campaign ads in 2012.

In the ’60s and ’70s, student activism may have meant something. At the very least, it was a genuine movement for change. It is difficult to say the same for Obama. The campaign strategy was devised with the utmost attention to appeal to idealistic young people. The power of “cool” took hold and attracted more idealistic young people, spreading through college campuses like a disease. I may disagree with Obama on the issues, but I admire his tactical brilliance. Not since Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness have we seen such a massive and mindless army of zombies rallied to a cause.

It looks like Obama’s team and Apple’s Steve Jobs compared notes. The Left managed to sell Obama to the American public as if they were selling the newest iPhone. From the “O” graphic to the “Hope” poster, it seems that the campaign had just as much attention to detail as a corporation marketing its new product. Obama has taken such tactics to new heights, and as Andrew Romano of Newsweek writes, “is the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand.”

In the past, it was easy enough to ignore the younger demographics, considering their exceptionally low voter turnout. But in today’s tech-savvy world, having energetic worker-bees at your disposal is the difference between winning and losing. The same determined youth that built Facebook and Twitter into billion-dollar enterprises built a foundation for Obama’s electoral landslide.

Obama is the same substance of the Democratic Party with a shiny new exterior; he managed to take old ideas and repackage them for easy consumption by young people. The campaign promised “change”, but the administration itself has yet to come up with anything new; instead, it relies on the policies of the past. At the same time, they’ve managed to convince an entire generation that their policies are radically new methods for tackling the issues.

Thus far, it has served them well, as it has given Obama and the Congressional Democrat majority the political capital they need to fulfill their agenda. It would be wise, however, for them to tread carefully. One day, they may get too comfortable with being in charge and jeopardize the public’s trust, or worse: discover that they are no longer “cool”.

Tom Bortnyk is a student at Florida State University. This is his first post as a new PoHo contributor.

Take a look.

Why do I do this to myself? I get a call from perfectly nice people at the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club asking me to speak at one of their meetings (tonight at 6:30, to be precise) and I agree and then I am asked what topic, and I choose to speak on “Fixing Tampa Bay Politics.”

I should have opted for “Getting the Palestinians and Jews Together for Middle East Peace” instead. Tampa Bay politics are hopelessly damaged, so where do I even start?

You’ll have to attend to hear. And no, one of my suggestions will NOT be a plea for kumbaya-like bipartisanship or the like.

The social hour starts at 6 pm (let’s hope for the Club’s sake and listeners’ sakes that they’ve stocked a lot of vodka for me) and the meeting lasts until about 8 pm. It is at Banquet Masters in Pinellas Park, 8100 Park Boulevard. For reservations, call 727-360-3971.

His candidacy has been called “quixotic” as he flies into the face of a Republican challenger who likely will be Charlie Crist, but Kendrick Meek is strongly confident in his ability to force Floridians to examine the real record of their favorite, white-haired governor.

Meek is a rising star in the Democratic Party, finding himself with a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee after just four terms in office. Helps to have a progressive voting record and agenda. It probably also doesn’t hurt when your mom served on the House Appropriations Committee with (now Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, as Congresswoman Carrie Meek did.

He’s largely untested (he won his seat in Congress unopposed after his mother retired so close to the qualifying deadline that nobody could mount a real challenge to her son) but he’s shown great energy and won a good deal of the hearts and minds in the Florida Democratic Party, so much so that a few major challengers have stepped aside rather than force an expensive primary race with him.

Meek was in Tampa today and stopped by the Creative Loafing offices. We talked about how to pay for health care reform, whether the stimulus is working, his role in forcing smaller class sizes in public schools and his famous 2000 showdown with then-Gov. Jeb Bush over the dismantling of affirmative action in the state, which resulted in a 26-hour sit-in at the lobby of the Governor’s Office after Bush refused to meet with him and another lawmaker.

He also had this to say when I asked him why he is so confident he can beat Crist:

Meek: Well, first of all, I am running for the people of the state of Florida, and the governor happens to be a candidate in the race. That’s the way I look at it. It’s hard for me to have you see what I see, throughout the state of Florida, I see a very strong will and the desire of the people of the state of Florida to better their community and their state. I offer myself as a member of the House of Representatives from a safe district where I can be a member of Congress for a very, very long time. My grandchildren could see me be a member of Congress, because I work hard on behalf of not only my district but also the state of Florida.

When the election day rolls around, titles will not be on the ballot, only the name and the track record. This is a very historic campaign, because there hasn’t been a statewide elected official that has qualified by petition, that’s 112, 476 signatures. It’s important that we qualify that way so we can hear the stories of Florida. Just because I’ve been … in public service 15 years, that doesn’t necessarily mean I understand all of the issues and know what’s going on in the homes of every Floridian. But I can tell you in the 57 counties of the 67 counties that have turned in petitions to help place my name on the ballot, it is already made me a better candidate and eventually will make me a better senator. That experience will allow us to rise up from the primary experience into a general election, and as we start to look at the issues that are facing Florida, as we start to look at who will be in the majority and who will be in the minority in Washington, D.C., I think one of the bigger questions for this entire Senate race will be: Governor, you’re the most powerful elected official in the state of Florida, politically. You could sign a piece of paper and change the outlook for Floridians. You’re relinquishing that and that position in the majority in Tallahassee, [where] you have the House and the Senate supermajorities that are there, you could help us. But you have opted to run for the US Senate, going to a legislative mode from an executive mode to then serve in the minority in the US Senate, and you’re saying that you’re doing all of this for us. And in many minds of Floridians, I believe, that goes against good common sense and logic, if you’re doing it for the people. So there has to be something a little different there, and he’s going to have to explain that, more than I have to explain why I am running for the US Senate as a member of the House of Representatives. My intentions are pure.

My track record has been one of helping people, helping small business, and and being a fighter on behalf of the poeple that I represent. And I want to represent all of Florida, and that’s the reason that I got into this race first. That’s the reason I am qualifying by petition. And that’s the reason we will continue to build this grass-roots campaign throughout the state. And when I’m elected, God willing, I want to be one of the best senators Florida has ever seen as it relates to constituent service, as it relates to giving a strong voice for Florida and in the US Senate, and I’m very excited about the response that we’ve seen thus far.

We’re a year and a half before the election, and there’s a lot of ground to cover.

To listen to the entire podcast, Download here.

img_3397.jpg

By Manny Leto
PoHo contributor and editor, Cigar City Magazine

You may not have even known it was happening, but “Rapprochement With Cuba: Good For Tampa Bay, Good For Florida, Good For America,” a conference sponsored by the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation and held Saturday at the Italian Club in Ybor City, was, by its very existence, a milestone in repairing the tattered relationship between Tampa and Cuba.

About 150 guests, panelists, professors and local politicians filled the grand, neo-classical Italian Club, once the social, cultural and political epicenter of Tampa’s Italian community. Whether the speeches, panel discussions, and networking sessions will really accomplish much toward ending the 50-year-old U.S. embargo, no one is really sure. However, to get a sense of where the Cuba barometer is pointing, you could start with the venue itself.

In 1955, a young, verbose Fidel Castro arrived in Ybor City. This was no accident, no anomaly. In fact, it made perfect sense. Castro, in a bid to gain popular support for his uprising against CIA-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, he followed — literally — in the footsteps of an earlier young, charismatic Cuban revolutionary, Jose Marti.

Marti was the ideological voice of the first Cuban Revolution; the one American school children call the Spanish American War. In the 1890s, after an earlier 10-year conflict between Spain and native Cubans, Jose Marti rose to the fore of a new effort to oust Spain from the island of Cuba. Like Castro, Marti was an intellectual, a writer, poet. He traveled extensively throughout Florida between 1891 and 1895, raising money for Cuban independence. He visited Tampa some 20 times, giving speeches to Tampa’s cigar workers and strategizing with the exiled leadership headquartered in West Tampa and New York City. Marti’s revolution began in 1895. Teddy Roosevelt and the U.S. Army showed up a couple years later, in 1898.

So, 60 years later in 1955, Castro was on a PR tour of sorts that would take him to New York City and the cover of Time magazine but first, he spent some time in Ybor City. His choice for a speaking venue: The Italian Club. He met with then-club president Phil LoCicero at La Tropicana, where the two reportedly talked for hours. Castro’s request to rent the Italian hall was denied, as was his request to speak at the Cuban Club. Castro eventually rented the AFL-CIO Union Hall on 7th Avenue and 13th Street, which is today home of the Marti-Maceo Social Club.

On Saturday, 54 years after Fidel Castro was denied use of the club and 114 years after Marti rallied Tampa’s cigar workers to action, nearly 200 people, Republicans, Democrats, entrepreneurs, cattle ranchers, and exiled Cubans, gathered in Ybor City to talk, once more, about Cuba.

Rain drove the only five protesters away, even though Al Fox, the event organizer, invited them to come in for coffee and doughnuts.

Fox, president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy, assembled an impressive lineup of experts including an adviser on Cuba policy for the Kennedy Administration, Dr. Wayne Smith; former head of the Democratic Party of Florida, Alfredo Duran; and, via conference call, U.S. Congressman Bill Delahunt, D-MA, who has sponsored a bill to lift restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba. The bill has several co-sponsors including Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican; Rosa Delauro, Jo-Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican; Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican; Ron Paul, a Texas Republican.

Locally, Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who was conspicuously absent on Saturday, has expressed her support for establishing direct flights between Tampa and Havana, to compete for business with Miami International Airport.

“Every time a flight leaves Miami for Havana, the airport collects roughly 50 dollars per passenger and other assorted baggage fees,” said local business owner Jason Busto, adding, “People who are opposed [to increased contact and trade with Cuba] are using a playbook from the 1980s.”

Business interests were in full force at Saturday’s meeting, eager to capitalize on reestablishing trade with the island.

“We’re exporting democracy and capitalism,” said Richard Waltzer, head of the Havana Group, a “facilitator” for companies looking to do business in Cuba, who says the two are linked. “We buy more products from China than any other nation. What’s the difference between China and Cuba?”

John Parke Wright, a cattleman who traces his Tampa roots back to Capt. James McKay and James Lykes, was also on hand. Donning a suit, cowboy boots and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, Park Wright wants to see Tampa and Cuba’s cattle trade “back on the map.”

Indeed Tampa’s connections to Cuba extend beyond Castro’s 1955 visit, beyond cigars and Jose Marti. In the 1840s, Captain James McKay (He of McKay Bay) began shipping cattle to Cuba from Ballast Point in Tampa. The still-prominent Lykes family was, by 1906 firmly established in Havana, operating one of the largest cattle ranches on the island. They also operated the Lykes Steamship Company, which shipped cattle and other goods between Tampa, Havana, and New Orleans.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Henry Plant operated a steamship line, which traveled weekly between Tampa, Key West and Havana. Ironically, at the very center of Tampa’s city seal is the Olivette, a one of Plant’s steamships that traveled regularly to Cuba.

The connections are even deeper. When the Spanish sold Florida to the U.S. in 1824, they may have taken groups of Cuban fishermen with them back to Havana.

In the 1500s Spanish conquistadores “governed” and explored Tampa Bay via Havana.

Havana is our sister city, said City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena. “Economically, socially, culturally, we are kin.”

The announcement of their $65-a-head workshop, however, set off the buzzing-gnat comment-ers over at Buzz blog, who launched into a wild attack against Biddle, his party, his mortgage and house and his age (which they overstated by 14 years). When somebody came to Biddle’s defense, the crowd turn on Kates as an alternative. Nothing like a digital mugging.

Details on the workshop after the jump:

Workshop to Prepare Potential Candidates on the Realities of Running for Office

“Walk Before You Run – A Primer on Running for Political Office” to be held March 28 in downtown St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Fla. (February 23, 2009) – If the thought of running for political office has ever crossed your mind, then don’t miss the workshop, “Walk Before You Run – A Primer on Running for Political Office,” hosted by Common Language, Think Big! and PlanningWorks. The program was designed to offer people who’d like to run for elected office valuable insights into what it’s like to be a political candidate and help them determine if they have what it takes to launch a campaign.

“Walk Before You Run” will be held on Saturday, March 28, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. at Studio @620 in St. Petersburg.

“It’s been our experience that most people have a lot of unreal expectations when it comes to running for office. They don’t really understand what they’re getting themselves and their families into,” said Larry Biddle, owner and principal of PlanningWorks. “This workshop will enlighten potential candidates about the realities of running for office, like asking people for money and building a support system of volunteers.”

“Walk Before You Run” will feature numerous local elected officials, party leaders and political commentators sharing their advice and experience on a variety of topics, including:

·         Overview of criteria for a viable political candidate
·         What challenges can you expect as a candidate, and how would you overcome them?
·         What it takes to get started:  determining if you’re qualified, testing the waters, and getting candidate training
·         Initial campaign planning

At the end of the day, attendees will break out into groups for an exercise on designing a campaign for a fictitious “Candidate Joe” to understand how what they learned is applied in practice.

“We want to make sure people have an understanding of the process as well as the role of the office for which they’re considering a run,” said Mitch Kates, political consultant and principal of Think Big! “You’d be surprised how many people actually get into office and once there, think, ‘Gee, this is not the job I thought it would be.’ It’s really important that candidates ask themselves if they fully understand what their responsibilities would be and if they’re running for the right office.”

Confirmed speakers at this time include Kevin Beckner, Hillsborough County Commissioner; Mary Mulhern, Tampa City Councilwoman; Rep. Bill Heller; Alison Morano, Pasco County DEC chair; Patricia Kemp, Hillsborough County DEC chair; Ken Quinnell, Florida Progressive Coalition and Mark Ferrulo, Executive Director of Progress Florida.

The cost of the full-day workshop is $65 and will include lunch. To register, visit:

http://common-language.com/index.php?option=conference&action=conference.

(Disclosure: Larry Biddle is the domestic partner of CL Editor David Warner, who did not participate in the selection or editing of this blog post.)

The DCCC announced a new robocall, e-mail and text message camnpaign aimed at hurting 12 Republicans who were prominent in voting against the Obama stimulus plan.

DailyKos says:

Here’s an example of the automated calls that will be running:

Hello, I’m calling on behalf of House Democrats with an important message about the economy.

Did you know Congressman Thad McCotter voted against President Obama’s economic recovery plan, endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? McCotter’s empty rhetoric can’t hide that he voted to raise the AMT tax on 22 million middle class Americans and against the largest tax cut in history.

Call McCotter at 734-632-0314 to ask why he voted to raise taxes on middle class families.

Check out Recovery For America to learn more.

On the list of the dirty dozen is Putnam, who has already announced he is leaving his congressional office to run for the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture.

Now, of course the DCCC knows that Putnam is going bye-bye; it is already trying to field good candidates to run for that seat. But still, running the robocalls in either an attempt to sway his votes over the next year and a half or as punishment for his future political ambitions seems to waste precious campaign dollars.

Obama’s approval rating on the economy is 68 percent. The Democrats in Congress get a 49 percent approval, while Congressional Republicans score only 33 percent approval.

TPM reports:

• 52% of Americans approve of the stimulus bill, with 41% disapproving. And the public is confident by a 54%-45% margin that the plan will result in significant improvement.

• President Obama’s overall approval rating comes in at 67%, with only 24% disapproval. His specific approval on the economy is 68%-27%.

• Congress’ approval is at only 31%-59%, but additional questions show a much more complicated picture. The number for Congressional Democrats is at 49%-45%, while Republicans are at 33%-59%. The Republicans appear to be cramping Congress’ style.

One reason is likely that he won’t/can’t stand up publicly to the self-destructive House Democrats. Sure, less than 1 percent of the House bill was really pork. But it was pork that was indefensible, and at a total tab of more than 800 billion, it was pork that individually ran into the tens of millions of dollars.

Out in Real America, that kind of cash is still big money and can’t be p’shawed away so easily. For the past week, my email inbox has been stuffed with pointed, funny and (mostly) successful anti-stimulus propaganda: The Libertarian Party, “America’s third largest party tonight urged Senate Republicans and Democrats to scrap plans their joint plans for a $780 billion package of wealth transfers and expanded government spending;” the National Black Republicans, “The fierce urgency of pork;” and the new House Republican plan website that “details the smarter, simpler stimulus plan proposed by House Republicans that will create twice the jobs at half the price ”

(Take a look at this cool WaPo graphic on where the money would be spent if you need help visualizing where it is all going.)

So as Obama preps for his Fort Myers dog-and-pony on Tuesday and a prime-time news conference tonight to try to take back the high ground in his first major legislative battle, here are 10 Talking Points for what he must say and commit to do:

1. Obama must admit that the House leadership screwed up and included some projects that it shouldn’t have, and that he is disappointed in his Democratic colleagues, that even in the toughest of times, they can’t break their habits.
2. After that, Obama must say that even if the Democrats are guilty of throwing the first punch, Republicans responding disproportionately by going nuclear. The rhetoric from the GOP has been transparently clear, that, for many of the Republican congressmen, this is about giving Obama a black eye and not about what’s best for the U.S. economy.
3. Then admit that it is a failure of your first two weeks in office that you didn’t enforce your voter mandate for change properly by bitch-slapping both sides.
4. Announce that the bill must shrink further. The public has gotten the message that borrowing all this money is going to screw up our country in about a decade. Hell, even the Congressional Budget Office is saying this. And cutting either the Senate plan or the House plan further is going to require you to cut some welfare-related spending, in food stamps and health care. (Florida alone is in line for more than $5.3 billion in such funds.) Yes, those monies would go directly into the economy, as poor people have no choice but to spend them right away. But voters aren’t going to buy borrowing lots of cash today to expand safety nets. It seems to make more sense to build infrastructure, which will always be there once built, vs. providing safety-net help, a more ephemeral expenditure.
5. Obama must reject the tax cut-happy Republican plans as being, at best, inefficient in achieving short-term economic stimulus. Yes, go ahead and bring up President Bush’s poorly thought out stimulus tax rebate last year that gave us all $600 or $1,200 or some amount in between or lower and that mostly found its way into saving accounts or paying down credit card debt without any impact in the broader economy.
6. Play up the personal tax cuts in the House package, a $500 per worker cut that would be paid out in lower withholding over a period of months. Yes, it’s not instant stimulus; but studies overwhelmingly show that when workers believe they will have more money going forward (rather than in a one-time check) they are more likely to spend additional dollars into the economy. So in simple language, Obama has to tell the peeps: A one-time rebate wastes our valuable borrowed money, and my plan will give you a little more for a longer time.
7. And then promise longer-term tax adjustment when the economy rebounds. No reason to bankrupt the nation even further now, but folks deserve a reward for buckling down during this period. (Jeffrey Sachs disagrees, saying that taxes in the future will have to rise.) The only way to do this kind of cut is to follow through on your promises to critically analyze government functions and right-size the federal government.
8. Tell your Democratic congressional leaders to beef up (just a little) tax breaks for small companies. The House plan had a pretty good cut but it could be better, and it would both stimulate the economy and NFIB Republicans happy.
9. Talk a lot about the hundreds of billions in bricks-and-mortar projects that will transform our communities and nations to prepare us for the century ahead. The roads. The better energy grid that will allow us to really use solar and wind technologies under development. The transit systems that will take pollution-spewing cars off the roads. Naysayers are branding such government spending as “socialism,” but Salon has a nice answer to that in this slideshow. The projects, and the science/engineering innovation that they will fuel, will pay both short-term and long-term dividends.
10. Did I mention to talk about the science and engineering for the infrastructure? This is our generation’s shot “at putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.” The infrastructure spending isn’t just about cutting the backlog of planned state construction projects, although there is some of that; it is about a new future direction for the nation’s energy and transportation. And is anybody out there really happy either with energy or transportation?