The flawed logic in the Times’ Jennifer Carroll launch
Cross-post from Joy Reid who is in charge of joint bureau of The Reid Report and Saint Petersblog: Immigrant … check … Tallahassee experience … check … military background … check … and hey guys, she’s BLACK! That might as well have been the slogan behind today’s launch of the Rick Scott/Jennifer Carroll ticket.
An insider to the former McCollum campaign tells me several people close to poor old Bill had been pushing Carroll with him and that he was considering it. Black Republicans were also trying to market her to Charlie Crist when Crist had the chance to fill Mel Martinez’s Senate seat. For Black GOPers, Carroll is the dream — a woman … like SARAH PALIN, even! … with an immigrant story that they hope will soften her conservative edges and woo more blacks to the Republican cause. But there’s so much wrong with that set-up, it’s hard to know where to begin. So first, let’s start with the Steve Bousquet story on the launch, in the SPTimes. It’s got some doozies in it.
So here’s doozy #1:
Noting that Carroll was the first African-American Republican woman in the Legislature, Scott called her a “barrier breaker.”
Problem: out of that list of race/gender interest groups, which conservatives aren’t supposed to care about, only Republicans will care.
Doozy #2:
Carroll, wearing a bright red suit, said she likes Scott’s “energetic leadership,” and added: “He is totally committed to turning around the economic conditions of this state.” But she at first said Scott’s “7-7-7″ plan would create 7,000 jobs over seven years, not the 700,000 Scott is promising.
Doh!
Doozy #3:
Carroll was a supporter of Bill McCollum in the primary, and said she kept her word and that his jobs message resonated with her. Scott declined to discuss the vetting process in detail.
Cue Sarah Palin, circa September 2008!
Doozy #4:
Asked to cite her proudest accomplishment as a legislator, Carroll asked reporters to “look at my resume,” and cited her work in lowering the burden on businesses in Florida.
Look it up? Really? Why not just say “I’ll… bring it to ya!” Palin AGAIN!
Doozy #4:
In choosing Carroll, Scott, himself a Navy veteran, gets a woman with a distinctive personal story who could neutralize the gender appeal of his Democratic opponent, state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.
Really? You mean with Republican women who were already going to vote for Scott, right? This lady voted for SB6 and she voted for the forced ultrasound bill. Most women ain’t going for that.
Doozy #5:
• In a state where one in every seven voters is black — nearly all of them Democrats — Carroll is an African-American Republican.
Um… of the state’s ?1,445,937 black registered voters, 1,207,736 are Democrats, and a whopping 59,619 — about 4 percent. If Scott, or Mr. Bousquet, things a far right conservative is going to change those dynamics, just because she’s black, they don’t know Allen “Nobody Black Votes for Me” Keyes. And let’s recall — Pat Buchanan, who has about Rick Scott’s ideological profile, without the Medicare fraud, tried this act when he ran with a black running mate on the Reform Party ticket. How well did that work out?
Doozy #6:
• As a native of Trinidad, Carroll is an immigrant who could help soften Scott’s hard-line image on an issue that cuts both ways in a state with a large immigrant population.
See “Doozy #5″ above, but substitute Arizonapartheid.
Doozy #6:
• Her son, Nolan II, is a rookie cornerback and kick returner for the Miami Dolphins, drafted out of the University of Maryland.
Okay, now we’re saying people are just stupid…
Doozy #7:
Sink’s running mate is Rod Smith, 60, a former state senator and elected state attorney from Alachua County who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006.
Okay, I’ll give that one to you. He’s boring as hell.
Doozy #8:
Her official legislative biography notes that she is a lifelong member of both the NAACP and the National Rifle Association.
So basically she’s one up, one down with the teabaggers.
Doozy #9:
Her record is not free of blemishes, however.
Six years ago, after news reports said that she listed a degree from an online “diploma mill,” Kensington University in California, she dropped the reference from her official resume.
“This causes me great concern,” Carroll told the Florida Times-Union in 2004. “It’s a lot of time, effort and money poured into a university I thought was a viable program.”
Jesus, take the wheel.
I do have to say, as a Black woman, it’s kind of insulting that the right thinks they can just dangle one of us out there and the rest will come running like dogs to a dinner bowl. Dubya tried it with Condi Rice and Collin Powell, the RNC tried it with Michael Steele, and now this. Earth to wingers: it’s the policies stupid. Black candidates don’t always win with black voters — Just ask Jim Davis, who tried and failed with this gambit in 2006 — and he’s a Democrat.
There is so much wrong with this post I do not even know where to start. The argument presented, in the manner it is presented is a series of uncogent syllogisms that lack any kind of cohesive structure. Much less any thought.
There are so many logical fallacies, I will probably use this the next time I teach a class on critical thinking.
The big underlying problem, is that you seem to postulate that anytime a black individual is chosen for a position, they are not worthy of it on their own merit and are being, what did you say, “dangled?”
That is truly sad that you cannot look beyond skin color, and see one’s personal qualities.
Carroll, like Scott, started out as enlisted military. I did it too, and it was not easy. But unlike me and Scott, Carroll went on to become an officer. Again, not an easy feat. Given the fall out rate to be a Lt. Commander in the Navy, she was above about 80 percent of her peers, and the Navy promotes on qualifications (but I am sure you think it was because she was a black woman).
If you have ever spoken to her, she is gracious and geniune, again a rarity. She also still has the MBA on her resume, despite the idiotic diploma mill reference (which is odd to bash someone for trying to further their education). The MBA alone, as an advanced degree, puts her at a level of education that only about 13% of the population has. Not bad.
But unfortunately, you choose to focus on color. Free your ass, and your mind will follow.
Hve to say one more thing, the fact that you used a title containing the words “flawed logic” is very appropriate.
Paul, great point on….(which is odd to bash someone for trying to further their education). Why did Mrs. Carroll not feel that same way in regards to SB6? SB6, almost discourages teachers from furthering their education, regardless of your education or your length in service we (the state) would not reward you. I have major issue with that because of all fields – EDUCATION, we do not encourage furthering it. What type of sense does that make? I know that this was not really the forum for this topic, but you mentioned it and I feel the same way.
Now, as for the pick, I think Scott chose her for a number of reasons. If one of them was her race then he will not get great return on that one. Mrs. Carroll does not have a statewide name presence not does the black community know of her. If he chose her for her military background, great, because I didn’t know about his, may have heard it once before today but never resonated with me. If he chose her because of legislative experience also, great because she is respected in Tallahassee but North Florida is truly the extent of her base.