Sigh. I know, I shouldn't resort to physical violence, BUT SERIOUSLY HOW THE HELL ELSE ARE WE SANE PEOPLE GONNA CROWBAR SOME GODDAMN SENSE INTO YOU VOTERS' SKULLS?
Okay. Okay. Calming down a bit. Let's try a little bit of logic here:
Experience as a CEO of a company DOES NOT automatically mean a person will have experience running an elected office. In Rick Scott's case, his experience as a CEO isn't even good: he mismanaged a major Health Care firm - Columbia/HCA - into such a sorry state that the board of directors FORCED HIM OUT and left the health care firm to pay off $1.7 BILLION in fines, court costs, and settlements related to the massive amount of Medicare Fraud the company performed during Scott's tenure.
Let's take a moment to review his work history here: Scott as CEO did massive damage to his own corporation. This happened either because A) the Medicare fraud happened outside of his knowledge (Scott's excuse), which means that Scott was incompetent and incapable of keeping track of his own business, or B) the Medicare fraud happened with Scott's knowledge (the whistleblowers' contention, with some evidence backing that claim), which means that Scott was (and very well IS) a corrupt and greedy bastard. There is no third explanation here. Either way, Scott is an inept manager or a corrupt bastard. This is who you want for our state's Governorship?
Add to this Scott's experiences running businesses after his getting the boot from Columbia/HCA haven't been all sunshine either. Mostly bouncing around as a venture capitalist starting a series of health-related businesses including a planned Health Network that didn't seem to go anywhere after Discovery Channel bought up the rights by 2001. Scott tried another health care business called Solantic, a chain of "urgent care" clinics... and THAT is a source of headaches involving lawsuits covering discriminatory hiring practices among other questions of mismanagement. If Scott's had any success post-HCA, it's been running a lobbyist firm opposed to Obama's Health Care Reform laws: successful in that he's raised tons of cash and getting his name out there for, guess what, running for Governor.
The scary thing for me is how blind the voters seem to be of Scott's actual track record. The voters seem only interested in one thing: that Scott has the Republican(tm) Seal of Approval having won the August primary over McCollum. Pity there is, given the voter turnout (1 million) for the Primary compared to the actual number of registered Republicans (over 3 million) in the state, Scott didn't even really win a majority of the Party. He just won with the more obsessed (Teabagger) and dedicated (Wingnuts) elements of the Party that even tried to show up and vote. Which on its own is a sad state of affairs: did a majority of Republicans just not even care in the end who represents the Party for the Governor's seat?
What is worse is the overall voter turnout: compared to Presidential election cycles, the so-called Midterm elections have fewer voters. Basically, only Teh Crazies come out to vote. Which ought not to be the case here: in Florida at least there is the VERY REAL DANGER that a corrupt bastard like Rick Scott could end up in control of:
- Our state's budget: he can veto and line-item veto things at his pleasure. And while the Legislature legally has control of passing the budgets, the Governor would have a lot of influence in pushing which programs to fund or defund. And this is a guy with a history of FRAUD on his resume... Seriously?
- How the state's legislative districts and Congressional districts are drawn based on this decade's 2010 Census numbers. While Amendments 5 and 6 to the State Constitution can pass and could well assure that partisanship won't gerrymander everything to hell and back, there's any number of political maneuvers that could delay that effort of fair redistricting... and Rick Scott as Governor will influence the redistricting to his benefit.
- Our public and social services. For all the bullshit Scott is saying about "Let's Get To Work," like he has the solutions for curbing the unemployment crisis our state is suffering (12-14 percent Unemployment!), Scott is openly threatening to cut state-employed jobs. And someone like him isn't going to stop at 6,000 jobs... or 60,000 jobs. Any cuts he can find to justify massive tax breaks for his business and corporate buddies will do. Even if it means closing every library, every child care service, every poverty-fighting program that is staving off the disaster this state is currently suffering. Someone like Scott will slash first and never question the consequences: let the poor people worry about that...
Just on those three points alone, the whole of the state's registered Democratic population (over 4 million) ought to be rising up out of their seats to rush to the local early voting polls and putting their vote in AGAINST SCOTT. Alex Sink is a goddamn SAINT compared to Scott... and you Democrats aren't showing up in droves yet?
GET OUT THE GODDAMN VOTE, DEMS!
WAKE UP FLORIDA!
For the LOVE OF GOD, ANYONE BUT RICK SCOTT! Just. DON'T. VOTE. For that crook!
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