VIEWPOINTS
Consider Bean when casting vote
By Tyler Yeargain | July 21, 2010
I am typically not someone who sees the value in voting for or endorsing independent candidates for office. In my view, it is wasting your vote if the person that you cast your ballot for receives 1 percent (or less) of the vote.
Typically, in most races, it is relatively obvious as to which candidate best represents my values and beliefs.
However, in the U.S. Senate election in Florida, I have had no epiphany as to which candidate is even remotely qualified to represent our state.
Gov. Charlie Crist, for example, represents exactly what is wrong with politics in our country.
He is a political panderer and overly ambitious office-seeker who will happily abandon his principles if it means more power and more potential for power.
Typically, first-term governors do not abstain from running for re-election just so that they can run for the Senate. However, Crist saw himself as a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012 or 2016, and he needed to expand his national profile.
For this same reason, in 2008, when rumors were floating that he was Sen. John McCain's pick for vice president, he announced that he was suddenly engaged.
Despite being married for about one year before getting a divorce, being single for nearly all of his life, and having no children, he hoped that this would create the image of a "family man" that appeals to the conservative Christian "pro-family" voters.
I used to believe that Marco Rubio stood for principles, not politics, and that he would be a better representative in the Senate than Crist would. He actually appeared to have some moral grounding.
However, the combination of the revelations that Rubio used Republican Party money, donated by supporters of the conservative cause, for his personal expenses, and his endorsements have made me question that notion.
I never think that it is appropriate for people to use any money, whether "belonging" to the government or an organization, that has been provided by private citizens, for their own, apolitical lives.
To me, it is not a partisan issue so much as it is a common sense issue. And I will gladly call out any Democrat who does the same.
However, Rubio brings a sense of arrogance to the table that somehow, because he is conservative, he is just right for the Senate. His endorsements bring me chagrin.
Why on Earth would I support someone endorsed by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney or Newt Gingrich? Besides, it is difficult to offer any meager support for someone who will blindly filibuster and block anything the Democratic majority will try to do.
Kendrick Meek was my preferred candidate for Senate before I realized that I was only reluctantly supporting him because he supposedly shared my values.
Yet it appears that Rep. Meek is nothing but an empty suit who was elected to his position because his mother was his predecessor.
Meek, who has been "re-elected" thrice without any opposition in his gerrymandered congressional district, has done nothing of importance during his tenure in Washington.
He seems so surprisingly bland and weak that I doubt that he could ever hold his ground on any issue of importance to himself or the people of Florida.
Why I even include Meek in my characterization of this race is a mystery to me.
His campaign is so remarkably disorganized, weak and unimportant in the election that he really is functioning as a third-party candidate.
I know little about Jeff Greene, other than the fact that he attained his billions in a potentially shady way and that he is not afraid to spend his fortune on television advertising. However, I do know that I like the fact that he is limiting individual contributions to $100 and that he is accepting no corporate or political action committee donations.
Minus the fact that he is running the risk of being an out-of-touch billionaire, this seems to detach Greene from the "necessity" in Washington to curry favor with lobbyists and corporate special interests.
Point being, other than knowing that I prefer Greene over Meek to be the Democratic nominee, it is difficult to endorse one of the "major" candidates.
I reserve my endorsement for a third-party candidate by the name of Bobbie Bean.
Most people have no idea who Bean is and will not remember who he is other than maybe seeing his name on the long list of independent candidates for Senate on Election Day. However, something about Bean stands out to me.
He is not a career politician; instead, he entered politics in a different way as an anti-school violence activist when his son was severely injured by a bully.
He does not hail from the extreme left or the extreme right; rather, he appears to be a centrist with commonplace, moderate political views that fairly represent most people.
I realize I have no weight to throw around with regard to endorsing candidates for any office, but if you are undecided as to whom you plan on voting for, or simply are not devout in your preference, I would ask that you consider Bobbie Bean.
Paid for by the Bobbie Bean Committee for US Senate.
