Is the Orange State Still Red?

[Geee]

American Spectator:

TAMPA -- In presidential politics, Florida is very big medicine. Florida's 27 electoral votes in 2008, ten percent of what was required to be elected president, went to the community organizer from Chicago by a couple of points, making him only the third Democrat in the last 11 presidential cycles to carry Florida.

Democrats nowadays tend to win in Florida only after Republicans have badly lost voter confidence -- Jimmy-Bob in '76 after Watergate, Obama in '08 after the great economic infarct -- or after Republicans pick a superannuated war-horse with no direction whose only argument for the nomination is that it's his turn -- Billy Bob in '96 over Bob "Bob" Dole. This was part of the story in '08 as well when Republicans chose a great patriot and honored warrior but a political non-starter in Captain John McCain.

After the 2010 census Florida is even more buffed politically, bringing 29 electoral votes to the table in 2012. And whoever the Republicans send out against the lefty now in the White House, that candidate will be nominated and showcased in a Republican convention in Tampa. So, was Florida's '08 romance with a radical rock star an anomaly, or is red state Florida turning a bit purple around the edges? With 17 months left before the election -- dozens of political lifetimes -- it's too early to say. But the smart money leans toward anomaly.