Florida Votes and Gingrich Chokes

Catchy headline, right?  Almost terrifying.  Some of us think that Floridians shouldn't be able to vote -- that the votes and vote counters of the state have, based on elections of twelve years ago, neglected to meet their duty of care in handling such an important event as a presidential election.

Nevertheless, today Republican Floridians will go to their polling places and cast their ballots for their chosen candidate.  Ostensibly, it would make sense that at the polling places they will have their choice of, in no significant order, Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul.  However, if they voted by absentee ballot, they had their choice of those four PLUS Huntsman, Cain, Perry and Bachman.  That's because the ballots were printed before the latter bunch dropped out.

To begin with, let's hope that Florida Republicans actually go to the polls.  It's astonishing to hear the statistics about what percentage of registered voters actually end up voting.  The number one reason people don't go to the polls to vote is not that the lines are too long, it's that people felt that they had "better things to do."  WHAT?!

I say, if you are a registered Republican in Florida, and you don't vote today, you thereby forfeit your right to complain about the current political climate.  You have a say in the matter, and if you don't like something, fix it!  Don't just sit home on your computer ranting and raving about a who's a socialist and who's an out-of-touch millionaire; go to the polls and vote.

Now, who to choose?  Well, if the college-aged Republicans had their way, Ron Paul would be their nominee.  If the far-right evangelicals had their way, it would be Santorum.  If the businessmen had their way, it would be Romney.  And if Barack Obama's speech writing team had their way, it would be Newt Gingrich.  Of the four, I'd have to support Romney.  Not because of his political flip-flops and not because of his bashing of Barack Obama; frankly, I can't stand his constant criticism of a President who has done little to "strangle business," as Romney claims he has.  No, I am supportive of Romney because of his frugality.  In this campaign, many have smeared him as an out-of-touch multi-millionaire who doesn't understand the notion of spending a minimal amount.  To those, I say check out this great NYT article.

As for Newt, what else can we say?  I've spent a blog reprimanding him on his chronic infidelity which flies in the face of his "family values" conservatism.  I just want to make one more point about Newt based on his recent assertions that it would be a good idea for the US to fund a "colony on the moon" of upwards of "13,000 Americans" who can create a "51st state."  There are no words, Newt.

You vilify Obama as a big spender and this is what you want to do?  You don't think the government should help starving kids on our city streets, but you think we should spend billions -- if not trillions -- of dollars creating a 51st state on the moon?  Let's take care of the states we have before we start building new ones.

I don't know who I'll vote for in November.  I guess that all depends on how the economy looks, how Iran looks, and how many times Newt gets married in between now and then.  What I can say is that Romney deserves to take Florida today -- whether he will deserve to in November, well, that's an issue yet to be determined.