In Pinellas County, an 11-year-old girl, pregnant after her rape by her mother’s 42-year-old boyfriend, is a stark rebuke to the right-to-like and personhood movement, argues Mary Jo Melone.
Elections 2024
In Charlotte, Democrats Welcome Crist as Floridians Wonder Whether to Trust Him
As Charlie Crist takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention to embrace President Barack Obama, Florida Democrats are facing a question that could shape their party’s future: How much do they trust Charlie Crist? It’s part of a soap opera unfolding before partisans in two states.
When Lies Are Elevated to a Campaign Strategy
The lies of presidents could re-carve Rushmore by audacity alone, yet the lies of the Romney-Ryan campaign have taken the art of lying to new lows, but not without the complicity of voters, who, in the golden age of fact-checking, have no excuse to be misinformed.
What Makes Us Exceptional
It is not that American Exceptionalism is being lost, it’s that those who want to “tabe back America” have lost sight of what has made America exceptional, argues Dan Gelber after watching the Republican National Convention.
Romney-Ryan’s Voucher Plan for Medicare, Long the Third Rail of Florida Politics
GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said the nation must rethink Medicare as he and Mitt Romney propose changing the health-insurance program for 65-and-over Americans to a “fixed-amount” voucher that would essentially privatize the benefit.
The Tea Party, Missing from the Republican National Convention’s Big Tent
Despite cluelessness by liberals and Democrats, those outside the tea party movement still don’t grasp that “people like me are the absolute last folks who would be invited to the RNC,” argues tea party leader Henry Kelley.
Conventional Wisdom: Florida GOP Dishes Up Victory Talk
Florida delegates to the Republican National Convention dined on French toast, Allen West, John Bolton, Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich Thursday morning, a prime-beef line-up that fired up the faithful for the November elections.
Rumble in the Jumble: Marking Territory, Flagler Republicans Just Can’t Get Along
John Ruffalo, a member of the Ronald Reagan Republican Assemblies, allegedly used force against a 72-year-old woman to keep her from going into Republican headquarters in the Staples shopping center Saturday, even though she is the wife of the chairman of the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee, and a member of the committee herself.
“Just Stop Acting Stupid,” Jeb Bush Tells Republicans Over Immigration Extremism
Worried about losing the Latino vote, Bush and other Republicans nevertheless brushed off questions about whether the still-extremist immigration plank of the Republican Party could prove to be too much of a hurdle for the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
RNC Notebook: Wednesday
Republican National Convention quickies for Wednesday: the word on Alan Grayson, Republican lawmakers’ absence from delegate breakfasts, the Florida delegation’s buses can;t run on time, and big names, among them Newt Gingrich and Allen West, slated for Thursday’s breakfast.