Category: Florida

Sunshine State Spin

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Rick Santorum talks to the press after Monday’s debate.

TAMPA, Fla.
No debate is complete without the post-debate spin, and here are a few photos and videos of the action in the “Spin Room” after last night’s debate at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a “spinner” for Rick Perry, is swarmed by media.

Tea Party Express spokeswoman Amy Kramer talks to reporters.

Herman Cain talks to reporters.

They’ll let anyone in the spin room: Even Democrats like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron. It was weird seing Carl with a CNN-issued media credential hanging from his neck on a CNN lanyard.

OK, now here’s video of Rick Santorum’s entrance to the spin room. Notice how the reporter tries to work his own angle into the interview, which clearly irritates Santorum:

And here’s video of Herman Cain talking to the press about the same issue, Rick Perry’s Gardasil mandate:

CNN/TEA PARTY EXPRESS DEBATE

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TAMPA, Fla.
Greetings from the Florida State Fairgrounds where we’re about to get under way with the CNN/Tea Party Express debate.

UPDATE 9:52 p.m. ET: Herman Cain: “I’d bring a sense of humor to the White House, because America is too uptight.” And that’s it! LET THE SPIN BEGIN!

UPDATE 9:50 p.m. ET: Ron Paul just name-checked Austrian economics!

UPDATE 9:45 p.m. ET: Rick Perry: “I agree with Governor Huntsman.” Commercial.

UPDATE 9:44 p.m. ET: Woman from Afghanistan asks a question. Gets an answer from . . . Governor Asterisk, who advocates a cut-and-run.

UPDATE 9:42 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum slams Ron Paul: “You said that it was our actions” that caused 9/11. “That’s irresponsible.” Accuses Paul of “parroting Osama bin Laden.” Paul gets booed when he responds.

UPDATE 9:40 p.m. ET: Ron Paul wants to reduce “occupying” foreign countries.

Da Tech Guy is also blogging the debate.

UPDATE 9:39 p.m. ET: Newt talks national security.

UPDATE 9:38 p.m. ET: Herman Cain talks energy independence. Wants a “regulatory reduction commission.”

UPDATE 9:37 p.m. ET: Governor Asterisk. Again.

UPDATE 9:36 p.m. ET: Perry. Perry Perry Perry. Perry. I’ll be interested to see exactly how much time the Smilin’ Texan got tonight.

UPDATE 9:35 p.m. ET: Romney gets to Perry’s right on immigration, endorsing the border fence.

UPDATE 9:34 p.m. ET: Governor Asterisk accuses Perry of treason? Whoa!

UPDATE 9:33 p.m. ET: Perry. Perry Perry Perry. Perry Perry Perry.

UPDATE 9:32 p.m. ET: Bachmann gets cheers for criticizing Perry. “That’s the American way.”

UPDATE 9:31 p.m. ET: Perry defends in-state tuition for illegals. “That is the American way.” Some boos in the audience.

UPDATE 9:30 p.m. ET: Santorum slams Perry for giving in-state college tuition to illegals.

UPDATE 9:29 p.m. ET: Perry: “The idea that you’re going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso” is impractical.

UPDATE 9:27 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum talks immigration. Slams Perry. “Secure the border.” He’s pro-immigration.

UPDATE 9:21 p.m. ET: Michele Bachmann: “It’s unconstitutional!” (Talking about the individual mandate in ObamaCare or RomneyCare. Take your pick.) “I’m committed to repealing ObamaCare.” Commercial break.

UPDATE 9:18 p.m. ET: Ron Paul defends freedom. Gets applause.

UPDATE 9:16 p.m. ET: Rick Perry slams RomneyCare as the model for ObamaCare.

UPDATE 9:15 p.m. ET: Romney is asked about RomneyCare. He “absolutely” defends it.

UPDATE 9:13 p.m. ET: Herman Cain on how to fix health care: “First, repeal ObamaCare in its entirety.”

UPDATE 9:12 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum slams Perry on Gardisil. “No government purpose served” by the mandate: “Big government run amok.”

UPDATE 9:10 p.m. ET: Bachmann brings up the “big drug company” that profited from Perry’s Gardisil decision.

UPDATE 9:09 p.m. ET: Bachmann calls Perry’s Gardisil decision “flat-out wrong.” Turns it into a slam on ObamaCare.

UPDATE 9:07 p.m. ET: Rick Perry admits he made a mistake on Gardisil.

UPDATE 9:06 p.m. ET: Ron Paul talks about executive orders. Says, “The executive order should never be used to legislate.”

UPDATE 9:05 p.m. ET: Mitt criticizes the Fair Tax.

UPDATE 9:04 p.m. ET: Newt: “We have a problem of overspending. We don’t have a problem of undertaxing.” Name-checks “the Obama depression.”

UPDATE 9:02 p.m. ET: Newt gets in a shot at General Election — cheers! “Doesn’t [Obama] realize that every green tax credit is a loophole?”

UPDATE 9:01 p.m. ET: Governor Asterisk. He’s getting too much time. Any Huntsman is too much Huntsman.

UPDATE 9:00 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney is pro-Fed.

UPDATE 8:59 p.m. ET: Michele Bachmann refuses to criticize Perry on the Fed. Perry calls the Fed’s inflationary policy a “travesty.”

UPDATE 8:56 p.m. ET: Herman Cain wants to audit the Fed and fix the Fed. During the commercial break, I was in the smoking area with two Cain staffers who were pleased that the time is being “spread around” much better than during the NBC debate, when Cain got the least time of any candidate.

UPDATE 8:52 p.m. ET: Commercial break!

UPDATE 8:51 p.m. ET: Governor Asterisk.

UPDATE 8:50 p.m. ET: Herman Cain: “I was a worker before I was an executive and before a business owner. . . . Yes, I know how to be pro-worker. . . . I understand work, because that’s how I came up.”

UPDATE 8:48 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich: “The American people create jobs, not government.” Invokes Ronald Reagan.

UPDATE 8:46 p.m. ET: Ron Paul is a Texan. Not a Rick Perry fan.

UPDATE 8:45 p.m. ET: Rick Perry: “Mitt, you were doing pretty good until you got to talkin’ poker.”

UPDATE 8:43 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney praises Texas. Not necessarily praising their governor, of course.

UPDATE 8:42 p.m. ET: Herman Cain: “We need a bold solution.” He talks up his “9-9-9” plan.

UPDATE 8:41 p.m. ET: Michele Bachmann says “it’s easy to turn around this economy.”

UPDATE 8:38 p.m. ET: Rick Perry: “He’s gonna pay for ’em all with raisin’ your taxes!” (Talking about Obama’s jobs plan.)

UPDATE 8:36 p.m. ET: Question from Portsmouth, Virginia: “What would you do to get the economy going forward?” Governor Asterisk gets the first shot.

UPDATE 8:33 p.m. ET: Michele Bachmann talks personal rresponsibility. And now . . . commercial!

UPDATE 8:32 p.m. ET: Ron Paul wants to cut money for foreign wars. Proposes elimination of Dept. of Educatioon and Dept. of Energy.

UPDATE 8:31 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney talks balanced budgets.

UPDATE 8:30 p.m. ET: Rick Perry will not repeal Medicare prescription drugs benefits.

UPDATE 8:29 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum talks Medicare. Also, they just showed Ali Akbar in a crowd reaction shot.

UPDATE 8:27 p.m. ET: Newt denounces the “Washington mythology” about balanced budgets. Gets all wonky about it.

UPDATE 8:25 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum talks about his 1994 campaign. “The people of Pennsylvania wanted someone who had the courage to tell them the truth.”

UPDATE 8:23 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich gets cheers for slamming Obama.

UPDATE 8:21 p.m. ET: Governor Asterisk.

UPDATE 8:20 p.m. ET: Ron Paul’s turn and then Herman Cain. “I don’t care what you call it — it’s broken!”

UPDATE 8:18 p.m. ET: It’s gonna be the Romney-Perry show all night, isn’t it?

UPDATE 8:17 p.m. ET: Now Romney’s turn to talk about the Ponzi Scheme Monstrosity. And now Perry responds. “It’s time for us to get back to the Constitution.

UPDATE 8:15 p.m. ET: Rick Perry talks about Social Security the Ponzi Scheme Monstrosity. “We’re gonna fix it!”

UPDATE 8:14 p.m. ET: Michele Bachmann gets the first question about Social Security, and she says Obama “stole” Medicare money.

UPDATE 8:12 p.m. ET: Ready to RUMMMBBBBLE!

UPDATE 8:11 p.m. ET: Diana Nagy sang the national anthem. Now the candidates are introducing themselves.

EXPECT FURTHER UPDATES . . .

UPDATE: Protesters out front:

Bishop Tavis Grant of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

SDS? They’re still around?

Wasserman-Schultz Says Republicans ‘Worship at the Altar of the Tea Party’

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TAMPA, Fla.
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz just gave a press conference here that I wrote up for the American Spectator blog:

Republicans are “desperate to appease the Tea Party,” Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said, hours before GOP candidates were due to appear in a debate co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express.
“Tonight, I think we are likely to hear the Republican candidates for president continue to worship at the altar of the Tea Party,” Wasserman-Schultz told reporters here. Viewers “won’t find a candidate on stage tonight with a plan to do anything but return to the policies that we’re all so familiar with and that got us into this mess in the first place.”
Republicans “would shred the safety net” of Social Security and Medicare, Wasserman-Schultz said in her press conference at the Florida State Fairgrounds. “At least [Texas Gov.] Rick Perry was honest about his hostility toward Social Security, calling it a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ . . . But Mitt Romney was not straightforward about his support for privatizing Social Security, a scheme that would be as dangerous to the future of the program as Rick Perry’s attitude and rhetoric.”

Read the rest. Here’s the video:

UPDATE: Here’s a photo of the press conference:

That’s Norm Bungard, 74, of St. Petersburg, a volunteer for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security.

PREVIOUSLY:

CNN: Sarah Palin Turned Down Invitation to Appear in Tonight’s Tea Party Debate

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TAMPA, Fla.
Didn’t expect to get actual news during the media walk-through of the debate hall here at the Florida State Fair, but CNN Washington bureau chief Sam Geist disclosed to reporters that Sarah Palin had been invited to participate in tonight’s event sponsored by the Tea Party Express.

Palin ranks third in the latest CNN poll:

Rick Perry …….. 30%
Mitt Romney ……. 18%
Sarah Palin ……. 15%
Ron Paul ………. 12%
Herman Cain …….. 5%
Newt Gingrich …… 5%
Michele Bachmann … 4%
Jon Huntsman ……. 2%
Rick Santorum 2%

UPDATE: A couple of photos from the walk-through:


I gotta run: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is about to hold a press conference.

Fear and Loathing in Tampa

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TAMPA, Fla.
Good morning and welcome to the site of tonight’s CNN/Tea Party Express debate. OK, maybe not actually the site yet. I’m still in the hotel room. The debate is at the State Fairgrounds out on Highway 301. I’m supposed to pick up my media credentials at noon, then there’s a walk-through of the debate site, etc.

I’m crashing here with GOP New Media legend Ali Akbar, and last night we went out for late refreshments with Shaun McCutcheon of the Conservative Action Fund and Kerry Picket of The Washington Times.

We were at a place called Bar Louie, which was unfortunately next door to some kind of disco nightclub. So while we’re sitting on the patio trying to talk politics, our conversation was being drowned out by the thumping music from next door, and there’s a strange parade of hoochies in tight miniskirts walking past on their way to the disco. So then we came back to the hotel to continue the discussion poolside, but then a furious argument developed over last year’s NY-23 election. This was a bummer, and I was tired, so I came back to the room and crashed, but Ali says he was up until 3 a.m.

Morning  weirdness: Pawlenty endorses Romney. What was Pawlenty’s price? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Anyway, the good thing is (a) we’re going to be having lunch with Dana Loesch in a little while, and (b) all of last night’s escapades occurred after I’d already filed my column for today:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer should begin the Republican presidential debate tonight by asking Jon Huntsman a simple question: “Why are you here?”
The former Utah governor’s campaign has no obvious political rationale and is barely a statistical blip in national polls. Since he officially announced his 2012 presidential bid in June, Huntsman has only once (in early August) polled as high as 4 percent. Five of the six most recent national surveys show Huntsman’s support among Republican voters at a mere 1 percent –less than the margin of error. Despite the effective non-existence of his support, however, Huntsman will be among the eight candidates on stage tonight (8 p.m. ET) for the debate at the Florida State Fairgrounds sponsored by the Tea Party Express.
Of course, Blitzer would never question the legitimacy of Huntsman’s candidacy for the simple reason that CNN anchor is a leading member of Huntsman’s most important constituency, the media. . . .

Read the rest at the American Spectator.

‘Hey, TSA, Is That My iPad in Your Pants, or Are You Just Happy to Frisk Me?’

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Damn that VodkaPundit: He got to this joke headline before I did. Great drunks think alike, I guess. But enough about us — let’s talk about the government hiring criminal thugs to rip off innocent taxpayers:

The Broward [County, Fla.] Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Nelson Santiago stole around $50,000 worth of electronics over the past six months from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport’s Terminal 1.
Santiago — a TSA officer since 2009 — was caught earlier this week by a Continental Airlines employee taking an iPad out of someone’s luggage and stuffing it into his pants, the cops say.
After being arrested Monday on two counts of grand theft, police say Santiago admitted to stealing computers, GPS devices, video cameras, and other electronic merchandise from luggage he was supposed to be screening.

(Via Memeorandum, with links by Hit & Run, The Lonely Conservative and Weasel Zippers.) Santiago was reportedly selling the stuff by posting it online while he was still “at work.” The fact that this thief was hired in 2009 might lead suspicious minds to wonder whether hiring standards at this agency — part of Janet Napolitano‘s Department of Homeland Security — have been lowered since January 2009.

No way. Because that would be completely irresponsible — like selling guns to Mexican drug gangs and illegal immigrants. And only crazy right-wingers could ever imagine that any federal agency would ever do something  like that.

RE-ELECT PRESIDENT OBAMA
A Government Of Thugs, By Thugs, For Thugs

HOLY FREAKING CRAP! Casey Anthony Becomes the O.J. Simpson of Baby-Killers

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The Florida jury just acquitted her of killing her 2-year-old, and I expect her soon to announce that she will now go hunting  the “real killers” . . .

UPDATE: The Orlando Sentinel:

The verdict means 25-year-old Anthony was found not guilty of all charges except for four counts of providing false information to law enforcement officer. She will be spared a death sentence, but could still potentially face years behind bars in a Florida prison.
She will be sentenced Thursday at 9 a.m.
Jurors deliberated for less than 11 hours over two days, pondering the witness testimony and hundreds of pieces evidence they were presented with over the several-week trial. The jury found Anthony not-guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Frankly, I thought she deserved the death penalty for hogging up endless hours of cable-TV news coverage, but apparently that’s not a capital felony in Florida.

UPDATE II: Donald Douglas is updating what is sure to be a comprehensive aggregation and already has video of the lying murderous slut’s reaction to her acquittal:

While Casey has been acquitted of murder, she is certainly guilty of being a lying slut but — just like hogging up cable-news coverage — that’s not a death-penalty crime in Florida.

Professor Glenn Reynolds says the moral of the story is, “Don’t talk to the cops.” No, I’d say the moral is, “Never trust a lying slut.” Or challenge my equanimity, for that matter.

UPDATE III: An Orlando TV station declares that the trial “captivated the nation.” Which is, I suppose, a way of saying that TV ran wall-to-wall coverage for the benefit of idiots who were “captivated,” which no sane person could have been. Some postgraduate student of communication theory will undoubtedly write his Ph.D. dissertation on what the Casey Anthony saga tells us about the process by which network TV producers decide which crimes to turn into media circuses.