Make America Laugh Again: Lake Ray

Friday, August 19, 2016

The Robo, a new poem by Edgar Allen Murphy

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Robo, first stanza of a new poem
by Edgar Allen Murphy

Once upon a campaign dreary,

while I pondered weak and weary,

over obnoxious candidates galore,

suddenly, there came a pinging,

as of someone gently ringing,

ringing on my telephone.

“Tis some Robocall,” I muttered,

ringing on my telephone.

This it is and nothing more.

The Hob Nob at Everbank Field was the political event of the season, that is, apart from the actual elections. Democrats and Republicans, living together. Mass hysteria! There were candidates for Congress, the State Legislature, Judgeships, and more. Prominent locals including Melissa Nelson, Angela Corey, Lake Ray, and many others were on hand.

There were also many lesser known political aspirants, including yours truly. Although many liked the hat, there were some who didn't seem to know who I was. A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics took a picture of me with the hat and said that shot might be the iconic image of the event. One can only hope!

Will Congresswoman Corrine Brown be able to find another lawyer?

Indicted Congresswoman Corrine Brown, whose trial is scheduled for October, was nowhere to be seen at the Hob Nob while I was there. She may be trying to figure out how to find a lawyer to defend her. Yesterday, her attorneys, who had officially been on the case for all of two days, asked the judge to allow them to quit the case.

According to a story in the Florida Times-Union, the lawyers cited irreconcilable differences. They even said they would give Brown a refund if they could be removed from the case. Lawyers giving a refund? They must really want to be off the case! Brown faces up to 357 years for a variety of fraud and corruption charges.

Headline from Wall Street Journal:
At Annual Anarchist Meeting, Top Priority Is Getting Organized.

Organized anarchists? That’s not right. If they get their collective act together, they could make anarchists out of all of us. Oh, the humanity.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

We, The People, love it when political campaigns go negative.

Hoke and Spare Change

Although the vast majority of Americans say they don’t like negative political campaigns, many secretly love negative campaigns. How else would it be possible that the most negative candidates in the two major political parties have risen to the top and secured their nominations?

Since their coronations at the Republican and Democrat conventions, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have not disappointed. He says that she is crooked. She says that he’s unstable. He says she’s a liar about the emails. She says she short-circuited. He says things that sound ludicrous. She says he’s unstable. He says she’s crooked…

The only end in sight is November 9^th, the day after the election. (Of course, if something goes wrong in the ever unpredictable state of Florida, the outcome of the election may not be determined for weeks, as was the case in the historic election of 2000.)

We're not even into September and the schticks the candidates have been using already seem old and worn out. It's quite possible that viewers and voters may develop campaign fatigue. Instead of merely saying that they don’t like negative campaigns, they may actually grow tired of them. By the time we get to October, people may be so bored that they barely notice the October surprises when they are rolled out.

Republican Primary in Florida’s 4^th Congressional District

“As August begins, the most interesting narrative in the GOP primary race in Florida’s 4th Congressional District is the back-and-forth between John Rutherford and Hans Tanzler,” writes A.G. Gancarski for Florida Politics.

Rutherford says Tanzler is a political insider. (It seems like an odd accusation from someone who was Jacksonville’s elected Sheriff for twelve years.) Tanzler says Rutherford isn’t really a conservative. The rhetoric is pretty tame so far. Lake Ray, who is probably the only other candidate with a shot at winning the primary, has begun running non-attack ads.

According to Gancarski, “The other four candidates — Ed Malin, Deborah Pueschel, Bill McClure, and Steve Kaufman — lack the resources to go negative in a meaningful way on their opponents, and as a result they will be vying for the populist outsider track in this race.”

The 4^th District has been a Republican stronghold since Tillie Fowler was elected in 1992. Whoever wins the Republican primary at the end of the month will be in a very strong position to win the general election in November. With that in mind, things may heat up a bit in the next few weeks.