Friday, October 29, 2010

The Wrong in the Florida Senate Race

I have been voting since I was 18 years old. I have voted in enough elections to know....YOU DON'T ALWAYS VOTE FOR THE ULTIMATE WINNER OF THE ELECTION.

It feels good to vote for the winner. For the person you thought should win DOES win.

But, no, you don't always vote for the winner of the election.

Which is why the shenanigans down in Florida make me sick.

In case you don't know, there was a story that broke yesterday that Bill Clinton was contacted by the Charlie Crist campaign to try and get Kendrick Meek out of the Senate Race.

From msnbc.com

Fla. Senate candidate denies Clinton asked him to quit
A Florida Democrat running a distant third in the state's three-way Senate race again denied Friday that former President Bill Clinton asked him to withdraw from the race in order to help Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a former Republican who is running as an independent.

Democrat Kendrick Meek told NBC's TODAY show that he had discussions about the race in Florida with Clinton during the former president's visits to the state to campaign on his behalf. But he denied that Clinton asked him to step down. "I never once told him that I was getting out and he never once asked me to get out."

A number of media on Thursday, including Politico and CNN, reported Clinton had tried to persuade Meek to drop out of the race to prevent a win by the contest's frontrunner, Republican Marco Rubio.

"The argument was: 'You can be a hero here. You can stop him, you can change this race in one swoop,'" a Democrat familiar with the conversations told Politico.

According to the Politico report, Meek agreed, and planned to endorse Crist, but then failed to go ahead with the withdrawal. Politico cited Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna.

A Florida Democrat running a distant third in the state's three-way Senate race again denied that former President Bill Clinton asked him to withdraw in order to help Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
..Meek denied there was any plan for him to drop out. He also rejected poll numbers showing him getting only about 15 percent of the vote in next Tuesday's election.


The thing is, I'm sick and tired of this bullshyt. Kendrick Meek is the Democratic Party's Nominee for the Senate from the State of Florida.

Without no much as ONE PUBLIC SENTENCE FROM CHARLIE CRIST EVER ON PROMISING TO CAUCUS WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IF HE WON..

we have seen a drumbeat of mofos calling for Meek to drop out.

G-T-F-O-H



They pretend that Charlie Crist isn't an amoral oil slick, who, if the GOP took over the Senate wouldn't go ' I don't know you' to all the Democratic Clowns who are calling for Meek to step down.

They pretend like Meek would be the first Democrat to lose a statewide race in Florida.

They pretend like Kendrick Meek was appointed the Democratic Nominee instead of putting together his campaign from scratch throughout the state. It's not like Meek woke up 1 month ago and said, 'I'm the Democratic Nominee for Senate.'

No, he went through a year long( if not more) process, building everything from scratch.

THERE WAS NO REASON WHY ANY OTHER DEMOCRAT IN FLORIDA COULD NOT HAVE DONE THE SAME THING.

But, Kendrick Meek did the hard work. He did all the legwork. He shook the hands. He went to meet the people, and, it is not his fault that no other Florida Democrats, outside of that shady creep who ran against him at the last minutes was the only one who would run. Meek won the nomination WITHOUT crapping on his base (cough:::Artur Davis, Adrian Fenty:::cough).

Meek won his right to win, and yes, to lose, this election.

I don't know if all this leaking so soon before the election is meant to encourage or suppress the Black vote. I do know, if I was in Florida, I'd be tempted to ONLY vote for Kendrick Meek and let the rest of the Florida Democratic Party to go play in traffic during rush hour.

But, I like what lamh32 has said about this situation:

This is gonna be my last comment of the night on FL Senator. Charlie Crist is playing Dems/Meeks/Clinton/FL voters for fools. And Marc Rubio is gonna laugh his way to the Senatorial bank and Charlie Crist is not gonna give a damn. Don't forget, Crist won't care if Rubio wins, hell, he was a part of the Repub party anyway, 'til the primaries didn't go his way. This is all about him, and he played Bill Clinton, he played Meeks, and he play FL Dems.

tell the truth, why don't you.

found more truth in a post by Town:

Well, we know the Democrats/fauxgressives want Meek out, and Crist wants Meek out. They tried to pressure Obama out back in '08 but he had the numbers on his side. Sadly for Meek, he does not.

I can pretty much rule out Rubio in this scheme, since having Meek in the race helps him out at the voting polls.

I think it went down like this:

FL Democrats want Meek gone. They've tried all their tricks, he's like a roach, he refuses to leave. Bill Clinton knows Meek is a loser, but campaigns for him because he did have their back even when the other 99% of black people were for Obama. Someone from the FL Democrats camp contacts Crist's camp, says we'd love to help you out but this dude won't leave. At this point we can't be seen pushing out the black guy in favor of you. But we want to help you. Bill Clinton knows he's a loser, here's Clinton's number. Give his camp a call, we're sure Clinton can convince him to exit stage left and hand his voters to you.

Crist's camp calls Clinton's camp, and says Meek's a loser, convince him to get out of the race so we can stop this teabagger. Clinton goes to Meek, says "ya know, I'm gonna campaign for you and do whatever you want. But you're kind of low in the polls. Have you ever thought about leaving the race?"

Meek says naw, son, let's campaign and Clinton backs off. Clinton's camp asks around Meek's camp and they're like, "look man, y'all gonna lose, maybe ya'll need to exit stage right."

Meek's people are like "we don't wanna lose in a landslide, our careers would be over, we'll try to work him over." So Clinton's people report to Crist's people, the FL Dems and the WH that the option of leaving was presented to Meek.

The WH is like "oh, ok, keep us posted." Clinton campaigns with Meek again and is like "Well you know you still have some time to drop out if that's what you're thinking," and Meek again is like "I ain't....goin nowhere...I ain't...goin' nowhere...I ain't stoppin'... so kiss my ass to-nite."

Clinton is like (kanyeshrug)"ok well I tried" to Crist's people. Some of Meek's people are pissed he didn't drop out so they runteldat to Crist's people that Clinton even tried to get him to drop out and he's still in it. Crist is pissed that Meek is messing his plans up and that Clinton couldn't get the job done so he spills the T on Keith Olbermann and Politico.

2 comments:

Brian said...

I don't know Rikyrah. Not sure how I feel about this race.

I agree that the method is ugly. Backbiting and lacking in terms of respect. I think the two candidates (Crist and Meek) should have met face to face, man to man. A meeting should have taken place a long time ago.

I understand what you are saying... but does Meek really have a shot at this point, being down well into the double digits? (I stopped checking a couple of weeks ago...wasn't looking very good at all). This kind of maneuvering goes on all the time.

I have been wondering over the past week or two... wouldn't it be better for Meek to drop out and put tacit support behind Crist... or just to free his voting block. It would shift the election. I would rather have Crist (a moderate or the closest thing to a moderate Repub that you'll get out of Florida)...than the TeaPublican Rubio. It's a "pick your poison" situation for sure.

Then again... I don't fully trust Crist as someone who would be willing to work w/ Pres. Obama. I have a feeling that he may try to get back into Republican fold...and will follow the Republican script, as is required of Republicans in the House and Senate. And the script will be the same as it has been for the past two years... OBSTRUCT OBSTRUCT OBSTRUCT. Block everything that might possibly be a halfway decent idea... because Obama must not be allowed to take credit for moving the Country forward and having a positive impact on lives. Why? Because it screws up their plans for 2012.

Meek is playing the courageous strong role by sticking with it...but in the bigger scheme of things...within the bigger picture...it might not be the best way to go.

When it's all said and done... it's up to Meek.

I would have a different take completely if Meek were competitive... within that 5-6% point range. But he hasn't been there lately.

Roderick said...

AI, I like you have mixed feelings about Meeks dropping out and throwing his support behind Crist but the polls have been showing Rubio's support increasing( on 10/19 Rasmussen had Rubio at 43%) and Crist's support decreasing and Meeks' support staying the same which leads me to believe that some of Crist's Independent and moderate Republican supporters are moving toward Rubio and not coming at the expense of Meeks. So I am not sure if Meeks quit that Crist would win.

BTW shouldn't we be blaming Crist for being self-absorbed jerk who instead of taking an L decided to go Independent and save his ego and ambition?