The Occasional Observer

Politics still ain't beanbag, and Mitt and McCain seem intent on proving the point in FL. Check out McCain's most recent radio ad:

ANNCR: They say Mitt Romney likes numbers.

His campaign says he likes to look at data.

Well here are some numbers that should scare every Florida Republican.

400 million dollars.

That’s how much over budget the Romney health care debacle costs taxpayers in Massachusetts.

700 million.

A tax increase Romney stuck to the people of Massachusetts.

20 billion dollars – that’s what Romney promised Detroit. To bail out the auto industry on the back of taxpayers.

And here is the number that should scare Florida Republicans most.

16 points.

The Wall Street Journal says Hillary Clinton beats Mitt Romney by 16 points.

The bottom line. Mitt Romney loses to Hillary Clinton.

Republicans lose.

We can’t afford Mitt Romney.

John McCain. He’s the one Republican who can beat Hillary Clinton

JOHN MCCAIN: I’m John McCain and I approve this message.

ANNCR: Paid for by John McCain 2008.

Then there was this little back-and-forth:

Romney struck first on the day before the winner-take-all Florida primary, criticizing the Arizona senator for his legislation reducing the role of money in politics, for his position on immigration and for his support of an energy bill that he said would have driven up consumer costs.

"If you ask people, 'Look at the three things Senator McCain has done as a senator,' if you want that kind of a liberal Democrat course as president, then you can vote for him," Romney told campaign workers. "But those three pieces of legislation, those aren't conservative, those aren't Republican, those are not the kind of leadership that we need as we go forward."

McCain answered swiftly in a statement to The Associated Press. He accused the former Massachusetts governor of "wholesale deception of voters. On every one of the issues he has attacked us on, Mitt Romney was for it before he was against it."

He added, "The truth is, Mitt Romney was a liberal governor of Massachusetts who raised taxes, imposed with Ted Kennedy a big government mandate health care plan that is now a quarter of a billion dollars in the red, and managed his state's economy incompetently, leaving Massachusetts with less job growth than 46 other states."...

...Addressing phone bank workers who came out to the airport to see him off on a state flyaround, Romney said three key bills that McCain pushed in Congress steered the country on "a liberal Democrat course."

Romney said the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law "hit the First Amendment" with its controls over advertising spending.

He labeled last year's failed McCain-Kennedy immigration bill "the amnesty bill" because it would have allowed illegal immigrants to remain in the country indefinitely. Romney also said a 2003 McCain- Lieberman energy cap-and-trade bill would have increased energy costs for the average Florida family of four by $1,000.

He also drew chuckles from his audience when he recalled there was talk during the 2004 campaign of McCain teaming up with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee, on the opposing party's ticket.

"Had someone asked me that question, there would not have been a nanosecond of thought about it; it would have been an immediate laugh," Romney said. "And, of course, if someone asked him if he would consider me as a running mate, he would have also laughed immediately."

Emphasizing his signature issue, McCain toured the grounds of Atlantic Machine, which builds Navy ships and commercial vessels, before holding a roundtable in one of the company's warehouses with national security experts, including Former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and former Veterans Affairs Secretary Tony Principi.

In his statement issued before the event, McCain likened Romney to Kerry over the weekend in a Web ad that superimposed the face of the former governor on an image of the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate windsurfing.

He said Romney "was for campaign finance reform, and even proposed taxing political contributions. He was for cap and trade and even proposed a tax that would have increased the price of gasoline at the pump. He called our immigration bill reasonable and not amnesty."