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…
BarackObama.com has the official “remarks as prepared for delivery” up from yesterday’s town hall meeting in Fort Myers. Suspiciously missing? “Every body needs to grab a hose and that is what Charlie Crist is doing here today.” It just ends with “…grab a hose!”Meaning, someone edited it out, or more likely President…
When so many Americans have trouble seeing a doctor for the common cold, getting proper mental health care seems like a luxury. Unsurprisingly, many people who most need mental health help wind up in the corrections system. The Miami-Dade delegation in the state legislature recently invited Gov. Charlie Crist and…
The stimulus package Barack Obama is pushing will be a defining part of his presidency, and these events that he’s held the past couple of days should be treated as sort of historic. Yet, at the end of the day all we care about is that Obama said some funny…
Just Yesterday, we were talking about a Joe Scarborough Senate run in 2010. And why not? If Charlie Crist doesn’t run, former Rep. Joe “I Have a TeeVee Show” Scarborough sounds just as good or better than Connie “Hey, Remember my Dad?” Mack IV, Vern “Not Katherine Harris” Buchanan, and…
Well damn it. There I was sitting in the press pool with all these very important political journalists, I held back on one or two jokes during today’s live blog. Afterall, other journalists were greeting me with “How, was the flight in?” I couldn’t respond with, “actually I just drove…
Pollsters can pour over all the phone surveys they want, but the real gauge of President Obama’s population may be the ratio of protesters his public appearances attract to the number of people hawking Obama merchandise. Oddly, if you used the math today at the Harborside Event Center you’d fall…
Riptide is live today from Ft. Myers, Florida for Barack Obama’s first visit to Florida as President of the United States of America. He’ll be continuing the themes from his stop in Elkhart, Indiana and his first press conference last night, talking up the need for a stimulus package. The…
Riptide just settled in at the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers. President Obama is scheduled to kick off the next stop on his Stimulus Tour in about 30 minutes, and we’ll begin the live blog then.So, why of all places is Obama in Fort Myers? The official line is…
Back in 2006 when the Republican party came to the hard, cold realization that they would have to run political train wreck Katherine Harris as their Senate Nominee they begged and pleaded with former Congressman and MSNBC talking head Joe Scarborough to run. “Please, Joe, Please, Don’t let us pretend…
