Is Anger Burning Out or Learning Up?

Rick Scott is hoping major turnout tomorrow helps him overcome a deficit shown in recent polling, according to The Buzz. I like to think better of the people than believing stupidity is more likely en masse, but I am sure Scott doesn't view things quite that way. But he does have a point.

I have promised myself not to pick apart the polls until the primary is over, but I do think there is something at play in the statistics beyond a move in the voters away from these money candidates like Scott. Namely, likely-voter screens are getting rid of the uninformed. Primary elections typically just draw out the party faithful, or in the case of the governor's race, McCollum voters. These people have followed politics for years, and in some cases pulled the lever by his name back when you literally pulled the lever by a candidate's name.

But I like to think the new voters, those that would need to come out in order for turnout to be so high, are not such fools. Three months ago, perhaps, a message of hiring any random insider seemed something worth consideration. Back then was the heyday of the Scotts and the Jeff Greenes. It was also back when your Sharon Angles and Rand Pauls were winning primaries, but more important, it was far from our actual primary day.

Trashing Kendrick Meek's record worked fine in late April. It fed the public perception that Congressmen were all thieves or buffoons. People weren't checking on the facts about Meek. Maybe they still aren't. But they are checking on Greene.

Since then voters have checked into these men's own records. They couldn't continue to run against the bums who hold office today. Accountability caught up with them. Fines for fraud and trips to Cuba are bringing up the negatives on these vanity candidates. And voters may be anxious to toss the current lot of office-holders, they won't blindly swap for a set of genuine crooks.

So the biggest reason Scott would see a high turnout as a plus for his campaign is that it would indicate voters weren't so turned off by both candidates to be compelled to sit this one out. He may hope he can buy enough fools to stuff the boxes. I don't think this will be so easy.

I am still anxious about the elections tomorrow. The mailers and radio ads from Greene are inescapable. Rick Scott's evil mug stares at me every time I log into Facebook. But if voters have done even the slightest bit of their homework, these billionaires will realize they just wasted a lot of dough.