It’s a shame after nearly four years here, I’ve yet to see anything unexpected come out of the editorial page of this newspaper. Tuesday’s not-quite-glowing endorsement of Alex Sink drew yet another yawn.
And, sadly, it even contained the same age-old talking points Alex Sink’s makeup artist gives her when she can’t come up with her own. “Rick Scott is a crook. Rick Scott has no experience. Rick Scott hates gays, Mexicans, the environment and small furry adorable animals.”
Let’s start with the bad about Rick Scott. He headed a company that (after he left) settled a Medicare fraud case. Never mind that the “fraud” was a result of changes in medical standards that occurred under the Clinton administration and that the same practices were legal just months before the accusations occurred. And never mind that Scott was a mergers and acquisitions lawyer with no health care background who gave his 400 hospital administrators substantial autonomy to run their business. And never mind that Scott only left the company because he, unlike his board of directors, wanted to fight the accusations and prove the company’s innocence rather than settle.
Obviously, Rick Scott is a crook.
But would Scott be a good governor? Probably.
True, we haven’t seen him in political office. We’ve just seen him in the business world where he took a company from the ground up and turned it into the largest hospital company in the world, creating thousands of jobs in the process. Yes, his company had some problems going on beneath him. What company (or government) doesn’t?
It’s quite a step above running the state’s pension fund into the ground and then promising the unions to protect their hilariously exorbitant benefits
. The best thing going for Scott right now, and the reason I’m voting for him, is he wants to promote responsible fiscal policy and small government. He wants to rein in the state pension funds that are slowly bankrupting the state, so the public service unions (including the Police Benevolent Association) hate him. He wants to continue to improve Florida’s education by holding teachers accountable and ending “tenure,” so the teachers unions hate him. He wants to rein in the state “gravy train” and end earmarks and wasteful spending, so the political establishment and the media elite hate him. If he were rocking my boat, I’d hate him too.
Don’t get me wrong — Rick Scott isn’t perfect. He has some shady history (who in office doesn’t?) and a lack of elected experience. We don’t exactly know what to expect from him, and I don’t think he’ll be the second coming of Jeb Bush. But he’s proven himself to be a strong leader capable of managing a large organization, and he has the right ideas for Florida.
The Alligator’s editorial did get one thing right — the governor’s race this year is slim pickings. But as usual, this newspaper picked wrong.
Johnathan Lott is the UF College Republicans former vice chair.
