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The Frau And I Have A Seat For Obama, McCain

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

The media is watching this weekend as likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is off in Europe and the Middle East, hoping to impress the locals and build up some kind of resume on one of those "If-It's-Tuesday-It-Must-Be-Baghdad" junkets.

Meanwhile, there must be more than a few of us who wonder when the two presidential contenders are going to launch their "Florida Fact Finding" missions and at least pretend to know what's happening in this state even if their perception is that it is a money pit for fundraising.

Of course, when someone like Obama shows up overseas and on the war front, he gets to talk to world leaders and the military commanders in the field. If he comes to Florida he's going to have a more difficult time finding someone in charge, unless of course he gets in good with the people who move you to the head of the line at Disney World.

Usually, presidential contenders zip into town on jets, make their appearances and then make their getaways even quicker.

Back-Seat Tourists

I wouldn't have minded having Sens. Obama and John McCain in the back seat of our minivan when we rolled into Florida on Interstate 75 the other day. I could have pointed out a few things they might otherwise have missed.

"Traffic isn't so bad," one of them might have noted from the back seat. He would have been right. There was a notable absence, not just of RVs on I-75 but traffic in general. I could have pointed to a sign right across the border that might have explained.

"REG. UNLEADED - $4.74" is what it read on the big yellow RaceTrac sign.

OK, so that wasn't typical. In fact, it was the highest price for the so-called cheap unleaded we saw on the I-75 stretch through Georgia and down the middle of Florida, but had we been tourists I think we would have turned our minivan around and gone home.

A few miles down the road and you cross the Suwannee River, which is about where I used to burst into the first verse of "Old Folks at Home." Now, I have to use the new state song except I've already forgotten what it is.

"Isn't it something about the kudzu blowing across the Everglades?" I asked the Frau, who usually just ignores me but with the two senators in the back seat would have been mortified.

Old Times Here Are Not Forgotten

You only have to go about 20 miles into Florida on I-75 before you get to the Confederate flag. Yeah, it's pretty much like the one they just put up outside of town at the I-75/I-4 interchange.

That one might have been a little difficult to explain to the senators. I suppose I could have mumbled about celebrating our heritage and hoped that neither would have wondered why there wasn't an American flag around, but we've been down that road already this summer.

After that, the landscape is pretty dreary, unless you are into taking photographs of billboards every 30 feet. The billboards get more exotic beyond Lake City, and every other one seems to want you to stop at the Cafe Risque where they "Dare to be Bare!"

I suppose the senators wouldn't have learned everything there is to know about Florida on one trip down I-75, but they might have at least picked up on the fact that somebody needs to pay attention to what's happening to what used to be a pretty special place.

Keyword, Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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