It's an interesting question. How could someone with the intellectual and political sensibilities of a 12-year-old win Floriduh so handily? It's not as if you can lay it to political craftsmanship or bold new ideas.
Jeb — and his state's oft-ridiculed electoral system — exorcised the demons of 2000 in convincing fashion Tuesday night. Bush routed Democratic challenger and political rookie Bill McBride — 56% to 43% — becoming the first GOP governor ever to win re-election in Florida. Meanwhile, the state, which as recently as the botched September primary races looked as though it still couldn't vote and chew gum at the same time, finally pulled off an election without a hitch. So efficient and smooth was the voting that within an hour of the polls closing, enough precincts had been counted to call Bush's landslide victory.
In the end, it was less Jeb's victory than it was Bill McBride snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. McBride, mimicking Democrats nationwide, managed to allow Jeb to come back from the brink of an almost certain defeat and stumble into a substantial victory. Never have so few done so little for so many....
The race was all but decided in the final gubernatorial debate two weeks ago, when McBride, whose good-old-boy image was expected to win conservative votes in north Florida, came off looking and sounding instead like a Bubba caught in the headlights. What's more, although the national Democratic party had promised to throw epic resources into the Florida race, the Bush campaign's $30 million fund was able to outspend McBride by as much as 4 to 1. "The Republican war chest just buried us in soft money," said McBride campaign strategist Stephen Fox.
It has been said that voters get exactly the quality of representation that they deserve. If this is true, and I think it is, it certainly does not say anything positive about the people of Floriduh. Jeb is a slower, much less capable version of Shrub, and yet he somehow manages to soundly defeat a reasonably strong Democratic candidate. Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat....
