Anything can be attacked in this political environment. |
Are the Democrats going to make a comeback? That's what I see as the underlying big story. Will the Democrats become more competitive with Republicans after several election cycles being in the dumps? |
Clay Shaw's going to need every dollar he can get. I wouldn't say he's the most vulnerable incumbent in Congress but I do think he is the most vulnerable incumbent in Florida right now. |
Flying on the space shuttle is a big part of his public persona. |
Given some of the advantages Davis had at the start of the race - the better name recognition and being from a bigger media market and being a U.S. Rep. and Smith being hampered by fundraising for almost a month - If I was Smith I'd be pretty happy with where I was. |
His numbers aren't moving because the underlying concerns of the people giving him low approval ratings are not being addressed. |
If you're better than a 3 to 1 ratio favorable to unfavorable - every politician in America would be happy with that for sure. It might be a legitimate criticism if her own numbers were over 50 percent and her ratio was much better than his. |
In a close presidential race, Florida is probably the most important state. |
It is difficult in this particular election for any of the candidates to establish an issue, call it their own and get credit for it. |
It's probably extra sweet in his mind if he can raise money that would actually help defeat Katherine Harris, given that she's viewed by most Democrats as being at least partly responsible for him losing. From a Democrat's perspective, she not only interpreted election law to favor Republicans, she went out of her way at every turn to make decisions that hurt the Gore team. |
She's sort of got a rock-star quality about her among the Democratic faithful. I'm sure she'll be making numerous trips to Florida between now and 2007 as she primes the pump for a presidential race. |
Smith reminds me of people like Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles and Reubin Askew. Just as sort of an image, the more the Democratic candidate can get people to think about earlier popular Democratic governors, the better chance they have to win. |
The president and the Republican Congress really need to come up with a positive agenda of two or three bread-and-butter issues that all people, or most people, can get behind. |
They need all the money they can get if they are going to run close to the Republicans. |
They'll use George W. Bush as the fundraiser extraordinaire, but not necessarily as their campaigning partner. |