Chan Lowe: Rick Scott, contrarian
Rick Scott ran on a platform of platitudes and generalities, like “Let’s get back to work,” and “Seven hundred thousand jobs in seven years.”
He was short on details, and as a candidate refused to meet with newspaper editorial boards⎯a time-honored vetting process that would have smoked out some specifics, or determined if there were any at all.
Instead, Mr. Scott was long on bucks, and money talked…at least in this last election.
He is smarter than we give him credit for, because had he met with a few experienced journalists with institutional memories, he might have been asked questions like, “What is your position on high speed rail in Florida?”
In the course of his answer, the gubernatorial candidate might have been forced to reveal that he would spurn federal funding and the jobs that came with it, in direct contradiction to the pro-jobs line he was peddling.
Had he been asked about Florida’s pill mills, for which our state is rapidly becoming more nationally recognized than for its beaches and sunshine, he might have disclosed that he was against instituting a prescription database, which would have helped to shut down the doctor-shopping that attracts all the wrong kind of tourists.
Had we voters known all this in advance, Scott might well have lost even if he had spent twice the amount he did to buy his office. Now he’s our governor, and his own Republican legislature is rising in revolt against his inexplicable, imperial decisions.
Yes, he’s much smarter than we give him credit for.
CHAN LOWE has been the Sun Sentinel’s first and only editorial cartoonist for the past twenty-six years. Before that, he worked as cartoonist and writer for the Oklahoma City Times and the Shawnee (OK) News-Star.
Comments
Rick Scott, (Florida's Governor), can see through this give-away. This would be another pork barrel project full of nepotism! Can you guess how many GOVERNMENT jobs, IT WOULD "CREATE"? More applause for Rick!
Posted by: Amerigo M. Cimino | March 5, 2011 12:18 PM