I’ve seen more Trump signs & such, but so far no jacked-up pick-up parades like we had during the Confederate Flag controversy. I’m actually kinda disappointed.
Another quick bit of anecdotal data:
My parents are making the transition to God’s Waiting Room, having just established residence in North Ft Myers in preparation for selling their house in Pennsylvania. Mom is 72 and a lifelong Democrat. Dad is 80, fiscally conservative and mostly indifferent to liberal on social issues (his best man and friend since childhood is gay, as is one of his grandchildren). He’s mostly voted GOP, though I did talk him into voting for Kerry in 2004. Dad’s views on foreign policy…lack nuance, especially on Middle East policy–we’re Jews, and he’s pro-Israel and anti-Muslim in a very black-and-white sort of way. That said, the only GOP candidate that doesn’t turn his stomach this year is Kasich.
We have extended family in Cape Coral (the reason they moved to that particular area), some of whom are Cuban-American. They don’t like or trust Rubio very much.
They voted absentee a few days ago–Dad for Kasich and Mom for Clinton.
In the general, if Trump or Cruz is the GOP nominee, I think Dad may hold his nose and vote Clinton, or just not vote.
If “strategic” means somehow helping Kasich win the nom, give it up.
Here it is, your moment of Zen.
I have seen a few “issues” commercials the past day or so. I don’t remember what the issues were, so they apparently didn’t get the message across.
Tomorrow I’ll get out of the house once or twice, so I’ll keep an eye out for signs.
Monmouth has a new Florida GOP poll out, taken March 3-6. Trump 38, Rubio 30, Cruz 17, Kasich 10, Carson 1.
Interesting tidbit about early voting:
The 1% for Carson is due to persons who responded that they’d voted early for him before he dropped out.
And about geography:
This was the first poll of FL Republicans in about a week and a half, and it shows the race closing.
Even though I can’t stand Rubio, I’m kinda hoping he pulls it off, just to increase the level of chaos in the GOP race. If Kasich wins Ohio, then a Rubio win in FL will have them both competing for the anti-Trump votes in Northeastern and Midwestern states.
The issues seem to be how big a liar and phony Trump is, according to the Rubio PAC commercials. But they’re a break from all the ambulance-chasing lawyer ads we’re stuck with - even if I can almost hear “Marco Rubio - for the people” in John Morgan’s voice.
IOW, the part of the state populated by transplants from the Northeast or the urban Midwest is mildly pro-Rubio, and the part populated by southern natives is more strongly pro-Trump. This divide also pretty much breaks down as urban/suburban versus small town/rural.
The cultural pattern demonstrated since Super Tuesday continues in evidence.
The Sun Sentinel endorses…none of the above!
Who, Mother Theresa? [ba-dum-BUM]
That kinda puts the nail in the coffin… if it happens.
As of close of business Tuesday the Broward early voting is up to 90K out of 1100K registered voters. So about 10% of the vote is in the can here. Other nearby counties are similar.
The TV onslaught has started. I’m watching a network show recorded on Tue 3/8 and it’s nonstop ads praising Rubio as the trustworthy sensible experienced Conservative of the Future.
The other ads are all trashing Trump as a serial white collar criminal who employs lots of illegals. The catch phrase for Trump is “untrustworthy”
Well, that’s half right.
The other half being a word you can’t say in a TV ad?
DISCLAIMER: I skimmed this thread and didn’t see this answered, so if someone already addressed this and I missed it, I’m sorry and please just point to the post.
From what I’ve been reading, it looks like Rubio is likely to lose Florida. But I haven’t found a whole lot of information as to why he’s so likely to lose his home state. The most likely reason I can think of is that Florida residents don’t like how many Senate votes he’s missed. I can’t imagine why else someone would be popular enough to be voted into office, and then unpopular enough to not be supported in the presidential election. Particularly someone like Rubio, who hasn’t even done that much (good or bad) in his term as senator. Thoughts?
Rubio was popular enough to get elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010. That was six years ago. Maybe Rubio just hasn’t impressed his constituents very much since.
Also, it’s one thing to say, “We’d rather have Rubio representing us in the Senate than Charlie Crist,” but it’s a very different thing to say, “we think Rubio could handle being President.”
There are also a number of Trump commercials going into specifics about Rubio’s corruption. Not as many, since they aren’t as necessary, though. Cruz and Kasich are absent from my TV, fortunately.