Editorial
On Jan. 29, Floridians will go to the polls to express their preferences for the Democratic and Republican nominees for president, and to decide the fate of a tax reform amendment to the Florida Constitution.
The Democratic party has turned a deaf ear to Florida; the Republican party will listen with only one ear.
Only on the issue of the amendment will every vote count. We previously have taken the editorial position that the tax reform amendment would create two classes of property taxpayers, based on how long they have owned their homes.
While the amendment is not all bad, we think the voters should reject it and insist that the Legislature do a better job.
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The Democratic Party will not seat a Florida delegation at its nominating convention. Peeved because Florida set the date of its own presidential primary election instead of allowing the party pros to do it, the party has said that Florida's votes simply won't count.
None of the three major candidates particularly appeals to us, but normally we would make an endorsement of one of them.
However, since the Democratic party has made it clear that it doesn't care who Floridians want to see as their nominee, and has threatened to punish any candidate who is so brazen as to campaign in Florida, we will accede to the party's leaders.
We make no recommendation, and would not blame any Democrats who choose to vote for or against the property tax amendment and to ignore the three candidates in the knowledge that their vote won't count anyway.
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The GOP also is mad at Florida, but only half as mad as the Democrats. Florida will have half its usual number of delegates at the Republican nominating convention.
The Republicans have fielded a worthy group of candidates (and some who are not so worthy). They all have conservative credentials, and most have some degree of leadership on their political resumés.
One stands out as having all of these plus strength of moral and political character that sets him apart in the group.
John McCain.
A decorated combat veteran and a former prisoner of war, McCain has an understanding of what is at stake in international relations and military affairs. He has served on Senatorial committees in both areas.
While the Democratic candidates speak only of pulling our troops out of Iraq, McCain adds that first we must win the war. We do not need another defeat like Vietnam, not even one wrapped in a Nixonian phrase like “peace with honor.”
But McCain also calls “water boarding” what it is: torture. It is a tactic unworthy of America, and one that could be used by future enemies to justify their own mistreatment of our soldiers.
McCain had the political courage to support the “surge” in Iraq at a time when it had become politically popular to abandon our troops and write off their losses of life and limb.
McCain has shown himself not to be a Republican ideologue, but a thinking conservative who makes his own decisions without a pollster at one elbow and a spinmeister at the other.
We endorse John McCain's candidacy for the Republican nomination for president.
On Jan. 29, Floridians will go to the polls to express their preferences for the Democratic and Republican nominees for president, and to decide the fate of a tax reform amendment to the Florida Constitution.
The Democratic party has turned a deaf ear to Florida; the Republican party will listen with only one ear.
Only on the issue of the amendment will every vote count. We previously have taken the editorial position that the tax reform amendment would create two classes of property taxpayers, based on how long they have owned their homes.
While the amendment is not all bad, we think the voters should reject it and insist that the Legislature do a better job.
---
The Democratic Party will not seat a Florida delegation at its nominating convention. Peeved because Florida set the date of its own presidential primary election instead of allowing the party pros to do it, the party has said that Florida's votes simply won't count.
None of the three major candidates particularly appeals to us, but normally we would make an endorsement of one of them.
However, since the Democratic party has made it clear that it doesn't care who Floridians want to see as their nominee, and has threatened to punish any candidate who is so brazen as to campaign in Florida, we will accede to the party's leaders.
We make no recommendation, and would not blame any Democrats who choose to vote for or against the property tax amendment and to ignore the three candidates in the knowledge that their vote won't count anyway.
---
The GOP also is mad at Florida, but only half as mad as the Democrats. Florida will have half its usual number of delegates at the Republican nominating convention.
The Republicans have fielded a worthy group of candidates (and some who are not so worthy). They all have conservative credentials, and most have some degree of leadership on their political resumés.
One stands out as having all of these plus strength of moral and political character that sets him apart in the group.
John McCain.
A decorated combat veteran and a former prisoner of war, McCain has an understanding of what is at stake in international relations and military affairs. He has served on Senatorial committees in both areas.
While the Democratic candidates speak only of pulling our troops out of Iraq, McCain adds that first we must win the war. We do not need another defeat like Vietnam, not even one wrapped in a Nixonian phrase like “peace with honor.”
But McCain also calls “water boarding” what it is: torture. It is a tactic unworthy of America, and one that could be used by future enemies to justify their own mistreatment of our soldiers.
McCain had the political courage to support the “surge” in Iraq at a time when it had become politically popular to abandon our troops and write off their losses of life and limb.
McCain has shown himself not to be a Republican ideologue, but a thinking conservative who makes his own decisions without a pollster at one elbow and a spinmeister at the other.
We endorse John McCain's candidacy for the Republican nomination for president.
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