June 30, 2008

By: Hamilton Ryan

Hello all and welcome back to my blog site, and if you are a first time visitor then welcome to the site, and I hope that you enjoy it. As many of you may have noticed there have been a few changes with the display of the site. Let me take the time to address each update and what it is there for. There is a poll question that I have for all of my visitors to answer. Please if you have the time read the question and answer it. That helps me keep up with the major issues affecting my visitors. Now moving on you will find directly below my blog archive a section that shows the electoral votes. This section will keep you up-to-date from day to day with the current state of the election, and which side is winning. The map below that shows you which states the Republicans/GOP are winning, and which states the Democrats are winning. Both of these are updated daily. Lastly you will find at the very bottom of the page that I have put one more thing. This is merely just another way of looking at the current electoral votes.

Now that we have gotten the house cleaning out of the way let me give you an update on the state of the race. Currently in Florida the election has become tied. The Obama team has gained ground! McCain has hurt himself badly by promoting offshore drilling because the people here in Florida realize that affects them in a big way. From what I have heard some students down in Gainesville have stated that there is no benefit to offshore drilling. Gas prices would pretty much stay the same, and if there was a relief it would only be short term. At the same time the beaches would slowly start getting destroyed, and Florida's main asset to its economy, which is its tourism due to the beaches, would crumble. The Republican Party has been hurt in a big way down here in Florida, and it continues losing ground. After talking to many voters I have heard a few other issues that are on their minds. One issue is the political corruption of the state of Florida. I have consistently heard about these "political machines" that run the state, and every time that I hear about them it makes me sick. An obvious product of this would be the conclusion to the 2000 election when Al Gore lost by just 537 votes in Florida. There are so many people down here that are still furious about that election, and they should be, but at the same time we should look for a solution to that, and I have one. The solution, oddly enough, is found in another issue that I heard from Florida voters.

The issue that I am speaking of is voter apathy. According to the great people of the state of Florida, and more specifically Polk County, the Democratic voters have a history of being apathetic come election day. So first we, as a party, need to get the voters excited about their candidate, which should not be too difficult seeing as how he is young and he is up against John McCain. The national polls have proven that the younger crowd already swings to Obama's favor. Now we must capitalize on that. Also, we HAVE to make sure that there are record turnouts in every county come election day. If there are, then they cannot say that we lost by a small number, like 537 votes! These are the issues that I have heard so far from the Democratic, Independent, and even some disgruntled Republican Florida voters, and these are the issues that we need to attack quickly as a party. We have take the ground back in Florida and tied it up. Now we must take the lead, and once we have that lead we must be relentless. This is our election to win, or to lose, and I have full faith in my party, and my country that we will win it. Again I ask you to continue to check back for more updates. Thank you for reading and keeping in touch. Remember that if you have the time to answer that poll question to answer it. I would be very appreciative. Thank you and may God continue to bless this great country of ours!