Florida folks are gonna surprise everyone.

[onethatcares]

While working in one of those quaint villages here that's full of the elderly (well, older than me), I got to talking about shrub and the response was vile, they hate the son of a beetch. I thought they were all republicans. The one lady said I should here how it sounds at bingo or cards or shuffleboard. They all know he stole the election and will not let it go. They are watching everything they paid into go out the window, and they are pissed. I told them about diebold and jebs claim to give fla to his brother. That lit some fires. I didn't leave any websites or links but the next time, they will have DU on their agenda. Yee Haw. I thought it was only us dem younger folks and the mid age ones, and the blacks, now it's the retired seniors living out their years .

[Malva Zebrina]

1. One thing is for sure--they vote

[Florida_Geek]

2. The only question is how many voted for him but

will not vote for him in 2004.

[formactv]

3. Well there are about 20,000...

who got hung up on the butterfly ballot. They won't vote for Buchanan this time.

[whistle]

4. Good question...

...in the case of Florida retirees it may be best to check the actuarial charts and not the polls:dem: Will they last long enough to kick the polls or kick the bucket?

[Malva Zebrina]

10. Maybe they should get a write in ballot in that case

and maybe those who go into nursing homes to get ballots from seniors who do not even know what day or year it is or even what it is they are signing, shold also be investigated.

[onethatcares]

14. no these are Healthy retirees,

folks that worked 30-35 yrs with one company (imagine that?). They've seen the sand washing out from under their feet. They don't like his bro in the gov mansion any better. They talk about, "how do you educate kids without schools". They're a lot smarter than people think. Hell, they bought the Florida dream before most of us.

[Not Me]

5. Not surprising

My partner has three aunts/uncles living in Central Florida. All the uncles are 20 year military retirees. I just assumed they were staunch repubs, and shied away from election discussion when I was at a barbeque with them last week.

Somehow the topic of bu$h came up, and it was like a bomb went off in the yard. They DESPISE him. You name it: his treatment of the military, his refusal to come clean on his AWOL--while they were in Vietnam, the "phony" (their words) tax cuts, and Social Security privatization--or as they put it, moving our retirement money to Haliburton and Enron to squander.

So there's at least 6 senior/veteran voters who will vote for Kerry.

[ThomWV]

6. 10%

Mark my words, that shitball will loose Florida by at least 10%.

[jab105]

18. Careful about the prediction...

I thought Jeb would lose but he won in a landslide re-election...

George may not be popular with the retirees in Southern Florida, but the big middle of the state that Bush has visited a billion times is full of those who like Bush because he wants to give um all there money back...of course, they are the same people who dont have decent roads, fire, police, schools...but that keeps them unquestioning, which is handy.....

[Physicist]

7. Carol Mosley-Brawn for VP?

I have been thinking about the minority turnout in the South, and the women vote, and the let's-have-highminded-debates-on-the-issues vote. Maybe having Carol Mosley-Brawn on the ticket would help.

[alcuno]

9. Kerry doesn't need the women's vote - He's already got it.

Although yours is a helpful comment (wink, wink) here in Illinois there is a 24% gap between men and women. More evidence in my belief that men are easily misled; look at the Iraq War. By the way, as she was my former senator, I know her name is spelled Mosley-BraUn.

My guess for VP? General Anthony Zinni, former head of Central Command in Tampa. We Dems are actually pretty smart cookies.

[stevedeshazer]

25. Gee, thanks for the man generalization

And women get infections and men want to hunt giraffes, right?

Bashing men is not smart, cookie.

[aldian159]

12. Way too much baggage

[newyawker99]

32. Hi Physicist!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Gman]

8. They are part of the BASE too

the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party...

Hello! to some people that want to push this party to the wingnut edge on the left...

[annagull]

11. Whatever you do, PB County must kick LePore to the curb!

She's running for re-election, here is a link:
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/palm_beach_news/article/0,1651,TCP_1020_2706427,00.html

One of her challengers, Arthur Anderson (unfortunate name), wants to hook up printers to the voting machines:

Anderson said public trust in the election process is being "insidiously eroded." That could be fixed, he said, by implementing a paper ballot backup for electronic voting machines, having a supervisor of elections who is a community leader, and education to encourage voter registration and turnout.

Of course, LePore is against that. Big suprise, huh?

[revcarol]

13. Why don't you look up his site,

and post it here in a separate thread. I would LUV to dump LaPore.Most DU-ers would.

[annagull]

15. Thanks, revcarol!

I just found out she's up for re-election yesterday. I don't live in Palm Beach county, but my husband's family all live there and are strong Liberal Democrats all!

[BillZBubb]

16. Not to rain on everyone's parade but,

didn't little Shrub just get re-elected guv in 2002? I don't see how we can win Fl in 2004 based on that result alone. If the Dems had a shot, Jebthro would have been out on his ass in 2002.

I'll believe it when I see it, until then I think FL is in the Repug column.

[Wapsie B]

17. That's right.

By using that logic, Jethro should've been out. In a state like Florida every Dem needs to get to the polls. This is why I'd like to see someone like Edwards or Graham in the VP slot; to neutralize Jethro's influence.

[TruthIsAll]

21. I believe he stole it, with the help of LePore and the other moles..

McBride was tied with him in the polls. But hundreds of thousands of votes were lost in Dade, while touchscreen votes for McBride displayed a vote for Bush. There were many, many reports of this.

Florida was lost in Diebold Cyberspace. Just like Georgia.

[watercolors]

30. we had a poor candidate in 2002 in Fl

Believe me folks here in Fl have had enoough of the Bushes. Yes all of us old retired folks have had enough! what you don't realize is that many of them have had to go to work again to get more medical coverage and make ends meet. I've lived in Fl for forty years. I want to retire this year, but, we are helping some of our grandchildren with financial help for college. Beleive me the majoratity of retireries don't want another 4 years of this idiot.

Please speak better of your elders, you too will be there some day! Don't throw us away and think our judgement is impaired. I don't play bingo, I work for the Dem party, I do volunteer work at a sharing center, my husband and I work with homes for humanity, we have 9 grandkids we spend time with. We are probably just as busy and involved as most of our youger generation! There, got that off my chest!

[dflprincess]

19. My informal and unscientific survey of the "Greatest Generation"

indicates that they are mad as hell at Bush and gearing up for one last fight to save the country before they leave this planet. At the caucuses Tuesday night I was not just struck by the number of young ones that showed up, but also by the number of elderly (70's and 80's I'd guess) that showed up.

This consists of knowing what my mom, her friends, my aunts, and my friends parents, and my sister-in-laws elderly clients are saying (a few of whom used to be Republicans).

Remember, when opinion polls about going to war in Iraq were broken down by age, it was the WWII generation that had the highest numbers of opposition.

[artr2]

20. Here on the West coast of Fla

We are organizing, we are speaking out, we are walking our precincts, we are signing up new DEMOCRATIC voters!

WE are going to kick some REPUKKK ASS!

[shtinkycat]

22. Here on the central florida east coast too

We are in deep Bush country but we are NOT hanging our heads. We are meeting up with other Dems and planning to swamp the polls on 11/02. At least I haven't gotten rocks thrown at me yet for wearing my "ABB" tee shirt B-)

[leesa]

23. Make certain you introduce them to blackboxvoting.com

Older people get it a lot more than the baby boomers...some remember Hitler and they remember the Great Depression

[Zo Zig]

24. Listen up folks

I live in Palm Beach County, and this is what I am going to do.
#1. Support anyone that is running against Twit Lepoor.
#2. Drive as many people to vote as is humanly possible.
#3. Give money to JFK.
#4. Support Randi Rhodes moves to the NYC market this month.
#5. Point out the fucking failures of * to everyone one I meet from
now to election day.
#6. Support Wexler's lawsuit.
#7. Place a sign in my yard, car, and on my desk to dump *.

I cannot live through a another four year of *, no way, no how.
So yes, Florida will suprise everyone. Jeb was a non issue, this election is a replay of the last one, and we have not forgotten that event.

[seabeyond]

26. in your view

how come jeb won. i dont get it. was it cause it was so soon after 9/11 and people too afraid to go for change

[Zo Zig]

27. IMO

Jeb won based on a split in the democrats over McBride and Reno. As a party they were not united. 02 was still riding on the wave of terror and "my brother in DC" will bah, bah.
For the present, Jeb's election is a non issue. This election is a replay of 00, and the party is united.
Also, * still appeared to be the saviour of the country.
However, many in Palm Beach County still state that we were robbed, and * was selected not elected. Jeb was not loathed on a personal basis like *.

[Jane Austin]

29. Florida votes!

May I suggest one more thing?

Carry voter registration applications with you (in Texas, they
are at the Post Office) and ASK people if they're registered. 
If not, hand them an application.  Ask about their families,
too.

I can't tell you how many people I find who've moved and who
haven't registered in their new town.

If you register 5 or 10 voters, it's like getting to vote 5 or
10 times!

[shtinkycat]

31. thanks

thanks janeaustin for the idea. I'm printing up some registration forms as I sit here. We frequent the bookstores a lot (and the pubs once in while ;) so we'll be prepared to engage.

[Catt03]

28. PB County too

My opinion is that Jeb won because McBride was not a strong enough candidate. He was an unknown in S Florida and although committed to running and winning, he was just not experienced enough nor had the personality to excite anyone.

Also 9/11 had an impact. Here in South PB County, the anthrax scare was almost hysteria and The road map for Israel was new and promising.
And...the DNC kinda left us to fight the recount on our own. That was depressing to say the least.

LePore should have been gone a long time ago. She switched parties to independent I think. She should have been fired...period.

[JohnLocke]

33. Hey, I live in PBC too!

In north Palm Beach. Palm Beach Gardens. I live in PGA National!

Howdy, neighbor! :hi: