Florida

Hillary Clinton just sent a formal public letter to Barack Obama calling on him to work to find a resolution to the Florida and Michigan question that reflects the votes in those states and seats their delegations at the convention. She also attempts to shame him for what she calls his failure to "support those efforts" in Michigan, and for the Obama campaign's opposition to revotes in Florida. "In Florida a number of revote options were proposed. I am not aware of any that you supported," she writes.

As pointed out in a conference call yesterday, it is not clear that the Clinton campaign picks up enough support to change their dire position even if both states are counted. But as long as the Obama campaign doesn't budge, it's a talking point for the Clinton campaign.

Here's the letter:  read more »

In a poll just released by Quinnipiac University, Hillary Clinton is running ahead of John McCain in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio—three swing states that, according to electoral lore, are necessary to win the presidency.

The poll also shows McCain would beat Barack Obama in both Florida and Ohio:  read more »

Slowly but steadily, Barack Obama's campaign is coming around to the reality of the Florida and Michigan situation.

Until now, his approach has essentially been to bury his head in the sand in the hope that the whole matter would just go away—which is would have, had Obama finished off Hillary Clinton is Tuesday's voting.  read more »

If Hillary Clinton does well enough in tomorrow’s quartet of primaries to continue, her campaign’s next step will to resume banging the drum about seating the delegates of Michigan and Florida at the convention.

Barack Obama should support this aim.

Realistically, any Clinton nomination scenario at this point requires the inclusion of lopsidedly pro-Hillary delegations from Michigan and Florida at the national convention, since she's all but certain -- even with wins tomorrow -- to finish the primary season with fewer pledged delegates than Obama. Both states held "outlaw" primaries in January: None of the candidates really campaigned in either state, turnout was markedly lower than in other states, and Obama's name wasn't even on the Michigan ballot. Clinton won them both handily.

The Clinton campaign has been playing the voter-disenfranchisement card, arguing that the delegations must be seated to honor the will of voters in both states. This argument has not gained much traction, given the obvious flaws of both contests. But Clinton's hope seems to be that attitudes might shift if she reels off a late series of primary victories, starting with Texas and Ohio tomorrow. Perhaps then, the thinking goes, Democrats might be more receptive to finding a way to dump Obama, even if he has a slight lead in pledged delegates and cumulative votes.  read more »

“It’s not over till it’s over,” screamed a woman as Rudy Giuliani stepped to the podium to give his concession speech.

But all indications were that it, Giuliani’s candidacy for president, was indeed over.

As he spoke in a half-filled ballroom at the Portafino hotel in Orlando, the back of the room where the press sat, and the blogosphere, were abuzz with reports that Giuliani planned to endorse John McCain, the Florida primary’s winner, the next day in California.  read more »

One odd detail from Hillary Clinton’s “victory” celebration earlier tonight:

On her right as she waved from the stage was Bill Nelson, the state's Democratic senator. No problem there. On her right: Alcee Hastings, who has the distinction of being only the sixth federal judge in history to be impeached and removed from office. His dismissal in 1989 came eight years after hes was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe and perjury. He was acquitted in the original court proceedings when his co-conspirator refused to testify.  read more »

In an interview this evening with Rudy Giuliani for a story for tomorrow’s paper, I asked him whether he would participate in Wednesday’s debate in California.

“We are going to California,” he said.

That has been what the campaign has said all day. When I asked Giuliani’s senior political analyst, Tony Carbonetti, this morning whether Giuliani would participate in the debate, he said, affirmatively, “We are going to Florida.” I took that as a yes.  read more »

Here’s what’s at stake for the candidates in today’s Florida primary:

Republicans

John McCain: A win, even if it’s by a nose, will give the media license to declare him the clear national front-runner and should send much of the Republican rank-and-file, however reluctantly, into his camp, positioning him for a decisive string of victories on Super Tuesday. Because of Florida’s closed primary, a McCain victory—unlike his New Hampshire and South Carolina wins—will not be chalked up to his support from non-Republicans and will be treated by the press as a signal from the party base that, after spurning him for nearly a decade, they are ready to close rank behind McCain.  read more »

Florida’s closed Republican primary was supposed to be John McCain’s undoing.

Tomorrow’s vote marks the first time balloting in a G.O.P. contest is restricted only to registered Republicans, leaving out the independents who boosted Mr. McCain’s performance in New Hampshire, Michigan, and South Carolina. At the mercy of a party base that despises him for his positions on immigration, campaign finance reform and a dozen other apostasies, the thinking goes, McCain faces the prospect of defeat at the hands of Mitt Romney.  read more »

BOCA RATON, Fla.—Rudy Giuliani, wearing a dark suit and dark yarmulke, emphasized his ties to Florida’s Jewish voters in a speech at a modern orthodox synagogue here today.

“I have a long-standing and strong community with the Jewish community here and in Israel,” said Giuliani. He told the congregants at the Hahn Judaic Campus of the Boca Raton Synagogue about a trip to Israel during which he witnessed what he called the reunification of the Ethiopian Jews.  read more »

Rudolph Giuliani is about to speak at the Boca Raton Synagogue: The Hahn Judaic Campus.  read more »

ORLANDO, Fla.—Between two campaign events at the Rosen Centre Hotel here, Rudy Giuliani held a brief press conference in which he sought to portray himself as the reasonable, positive and polite presidential candidate disapproving of the negative exchanges between John McCain and Mitt Romney.

In other words, Giuliani, once the Republican front-runner, has been relegated to the long-shot role played by John Edwards on the Democratic side: that of the suddenly awakened moral conscience tsk-tsk-ing on the front-runners’ shoulders.  read more »

In Florida, McCain is in first place with 29 percent of the vote, followed by Romney at 22 percent, then Huckabee and Giuliani tied for third place, 17-16. Clinton has a commanding lead over Obama, with 59 percent to Obama’s 21 percent. The data was gathered yesterday and today. [ARG]  read more »

It's true that Rudy Giuliani hasn't seriously contested any of the first five primary and caucus states (at least not since he dropped $2 million on television ads in New Hampshire) and that he has long touted Florida, which will vote on January 29, as his campaign's first true test.

Still, it's noteworthy just how awfully Rudy has fared in the lead-off contests. Last night, he finished with 2 percent of the vote in South Carolina, a state where he'd been running near the top of polls just a few months ago. And yesterday afternoon, he won just 1,910 votes in Nevada -- good for four percent.  read more »

John McCain’s lead slips very slightly in this tracking poll, which has him at 29 percent and Mike Huckabee at 22 percent in South Carolina. [Reuters-C-SPAN-Zogby]

His lead slips slightly more in this poll, which shows McCain with 29 percent, and Huckabee with 26 percent in South Carolina. [SurveyUSA]  read more »

John McCain leads Huckabee 33-23 in South Carolina, with Mitt Romney in third place with 20 percent. Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 44-38, and John Edwards trails at 9 percent. [ARG]

McCain leads Mike Huckabee 28-20 in South Carolina, with Romney at 18 percent and Fred Thompson at 17 percent. [Public Policy Polling]  read more »

Behind closed doors in a Palm Beach hotel, Rudy Giuliani gave members of the conservative anti-tax g  read more »

In a private address to a conservative group last weekend in Florida, Rudy Giuliani described himself as the only real fiscal conservative in the presidential race. He also took a hard line on security policy, and stressed the notion that his views were consistent.

The speech and the following question and answer session, which I reported on in this week's paper, also showed how Giuliani is continuing to try to smooth over his differences with conservatives on social issues.  read more »

Talking about fiscal discipline to members of the Club for Growth, Giuliani said, "We need a president who has actually practiced it, there in the battlefields, and won battles for fiscal discipline and I'm the only one that's done that." On the subject of security, he said that Democrats aspired to a foreign policy that would "appease" terrorists.

Rudy Giuliani, fresh off winning the endorsement of Steve Forbes, now says he was just kidding when he said he thought the flat tax was a good idea.

"I didn't favor it, I said something academic," Giuliani said at a press conference in Florida on Saturday, in response to a reporter asking him why he had switched from opposing a flat tax to favoring it. "What I said was, and it was not a joke, but it was half-jocular, was if we didn't have an income tax...what would I favor?

"First I would favor no tax," he said laughing and turning to his wife Judith, who duly smiled back. "That would be my first position. My second position would probably be a flat tax."

But, he said, the tax "would probably not be feasible."

Someone should tell Forbes.

--Jason Horowitz

10 a.m. Quinnipiac University will release the results of a recent poll asking Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania voters about candidates for the 2008 presidential race.

10 a.m. Children bake matzas for U.S. troops serving abroad at the Jewish Children's Museum, 792 Eastern Parkway, in Brooklyn.  read more »

10:30 a.m. Melanie Bloom and ESPN sportscaster Bonnie Bernstein launch a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) awareness campaign at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, 525 East 68th Street at York Avenue.

Graham Nickson asks for trouble.  read more »

Even as he continues to chase after President George W. Bush fund-raisers, Rudy Giuliani has just signed up Governor Jeb Bush's former Florida campaign manager.

Karen Unger will be the campaign's senior advisor for Florida, organizing field operations and grassroots recruiting.  read more »

Text of the release is after the jump.

--Jason Horowitz

I’m not a Tennis Person. Nor am I a person who likes Tennis People.  read more »

I just got off the phone with Steven Schlesinger, managing partner at the law firm where Democratic state Senate candidate Craig Johnson is of counsel.

Schlesinger, who said he's been an election lawyer since around the time Johnson (and I) were born, said he has spoken out about (but not litigated on) the Help American Vote Act, which is having trouble getting through Albany.

The a bill is supposed to upgrade mechanical voting machines around the state with electronic voting machines and avoid the kind of mayhem that existed with those hanging chad things in Florida.

Schlesinger says that HAVA is not the solution.

"I think there is need for election law reform but I'm not sure HAVA is a perfect bill," he said.

"In my mind it was a rushed bill to address a problem but I don't think it was completely thought through. It's well intended but needs fixing."

What specifically?

"From what I've seen empirically, the places that rushed and bought machines for the last election had serious problems," he said. "So I think passing a statute saying you have to do it real quick, until these machines are tested and proven, is pretty stupid."

-- Azi Paybarah

"We're happy it's cold," said Francine Mason of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, pointing out the chilly local temperature of 32 degrees at 2:49 p.m. on Thursday.

In southern Florida, it was 72, she noted, looking up the info on one of several laptop computers set up inside the former bank building at the corner of Union Square East and 15th Street. She then pulled up an instant Web-cam image showing palm trees blowing in the breeze back in her hometown.

Ms. Mason & Co. are braving the wintery New York climate this week in order to attract more tourists to Ft. Lauderdale. "New York is our No. 1 market," she said--adding, however, that "we have not completely tapped the New York market. We have a lot more people to go."

To lure in the hold-outs, visitors-bureau workers are passing out free hand-warmers outside the fake-palm-tree-adorned bank building and inviting passersby to come inside for a glimpse at what they're missing down South.

Folks who venture inside can register to win a trip to the Super Bowl, play a hole of mini-putt-putt, or go virtual fishing on the flat screen. Gals from Spa Chicks on the Go are also on, um, hand to massage people's palms. And a bikini-clad model greets guests at the entrance.

It's been marketed as the first-ever "pop-up store" for a tourist destination. The idea is the brainchild of the Florida agency's local PR liaison, M. Silver Associates.

An M. Silver rep told The Observer that the bank building had been selected out of "easily 50 buildings," including the now-vacant Wired Store in Soho.

"You can put a lot of people in here," she said of the 3,200-square-foot space. The temporary venue is open through Jan. 16.

Not everyone on-hand was thrilled with the concept, however. "It's a beautiful building," said Laura, 20, a prospective Columbia student from Austin, Texas. "They could turn it into something better. It could be a nice luxury apartment building."

- Chris Shott

Eliot Spitzer's plan for Medicaid could cut the number of uninsured New Yorkers in half.

Spitzer also gave lawmakers some things they wanted, like more dollars for education and property tax cuts.

Spitzer was critical of the pace of rebuilding Ground Zero.

Nine more human bones were found near Ground Zero.

Spitzer will be tested in finding a way to pay for his initiatives without raising taxes.

Rudy Giuiliani's travel schedule shows he spent more time giving paid speeches than campaigning in presidential battleground states. A spokeswoman for the governor of Florida confirmed they found the piece of luggage that contained Giuliani's papers, but insisted they didn't make copies of it.

The city is investigating 13 cases of Medicaid fraud.

Henry Kissinger and others pen an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about nuclear weapons.

It's okay to have a man-crush on Spitzer.

And has the president been reading your mail?

-- Azi Paybarah

• The Afternoon Wrap is getting 2007 off to a grand start by posting our first link to The Party for Socialism and Liberation. An article on New York real estate and the scary Pinnacle Group points out: "[U]nlike Trump, most of the real estate capitalists keep a low profile. Most workers will never meet them nor even know their names. While families in cities like New York City struggle to pay at least $1,000 a month, big capitalists are collecting billions." [PSL]
• But back to gleeful capitalism! Down in Florida, legendary Celtic Larry Bird has put his waterfront abode on the market for $4.8 million. That'll buy you "a bar with a 500-gallon, salt-water aquarium and multiple balconies" and "a waterfront pool with a spa, private dock and a tiki hut." [WSJ]
• Round II of the Curbed awards are in. "DUGO," "NoMaS" and "Hell Square" take honors for new 'hood nomenclature; Trader Joe's and Red Hook's Fairway get some prizes, too; and "The Party Barge" is officially The Most Anticipated 2007 Opening. [Curbed]
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

My dream is to make a rhinestone-studded ceiling,” said Jennifer Oz LeRoy, owner of Tavern on the  read more »

My dream is to make a rhinestone-studded ceiling,” said Jennifer Oz LeRoy, owner of Tavern on  read more »

The idea that former President George H.W. Bush cracked up in front of the Florida legislature today because he still grieves his son Jeb's loss of the '94 governor's race is preposterous. Yes, that's what Bush was talking about when he started crying, but the idea is nuts. What does your father even remember about a not-tragic career setback that happened to you 12 years ago and was subsequently overcome? Zero.

His feelings were displaced.

So why was Bush upset? Well, it's obvious. The talk of his son's misfortune touched on the real misfortune, his son George's. The father unconsciously fears that he is responsible for George W. stepping in deep do-do, forever and ever in the history books, because the father failed to remove Saddam in '91and the son wanted to set things right. So the father's fears of oedipal parricide have in this case been inverted, and the father feels he has murdered his own son. Thus: the crying jag. (That was free, next time it will cost you $225).

Eliot Spitzer has a house upstate.

The Assembly has a list of its pet projects.

The state nurses' union doesn't like the Berger Commission's recommendations.

Elizabeth Dole said the Senate Republican Campaign Committee is under "an avalanche of debt."

Rudy could benefit if California and Florida move up their GOP primaries to the first Tuesday in February, says the Giuliani Blog.

Greg Sargent wants to know whether Washington Post reporters and editors are officially allowed to call Iraq a civil war.

Adolfo Carrion is the city's only Rodel Fellow from the Aspen Institute.

Mike Bloomberg met quietly with the family of shooting victim Sean Bell.

And above is Adam Green.

-- Azi Paybarah

• A brand-new Top 50 New York Restaurants list is an undeniably exciting thing, though phrases like "in-the-know New Yorkers," "culinary thrill-seekers," "casual chowhounds," "the Great Restaurant Boom," "celebrity-driven design showcase," "young culinary alchemist," and "greenmarket guru" may turn you off. [Travel + Leisure]
• Stewart Rahr's $45 million Burnt Point estate in the Hamptons has already been dubbed one of the Most Expensive Homes in the U.S., and now, thankfully, it's also one of Forbes' Millionaires' Green Mansions. That's because the 18,000-square-foot house has a geothermal cooling system in addition to its private dock and swimming pool. [Forbes]
• Be grateful you don't live in Atlanta, where Claude Monet's ghost is the new Donald Trump. [Architectural Record]
• Straight from Deerfield Beach, Fla., "Super Sleek" florescent lighting is oh so back. But you'll have to ditch your "grandpa fluorescents" if you want the very finest in "undercabinet task lighting." [Apartment Therapy]
• If you haven't had your daily fill of useless Manhattan lists, this week's profile of "Top 7 Bars With Fireplaces" is a must-read. Go for the crackling winter cuteness -- stay for the British-obsessed patrons, the mini cupcakes and "librarian's classics." [Resident]
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

It is nip-and-tuck in Florida's 16th District, with Democratic challenger Tim Mahoney narrowly leading Republican incumbent Mark Foley, whose name remained on the ballot even after his House resignation last month. The GOP replacement candidate, state Senator Joe Negron, has encouraged Republicans to punish Foley by "punching" him on the ballot.

On July 4, 1821, John Quincy Adams declared that the United States “goes not abroad, in search of  read more »

On July 4, 1821, John Quincy Adams declared that the United States “goes not abroad, in search  read more »

“I still think that Wal-Mart is good for poor people,” Andrew Young was quoted as saying  read more »

QUALITY MEATS One Star 57 West 58th Street Dress: Casual Noise Level: High Lighting: Low  read more »

QUALITY MEATSOne Star

57 West 58th Street

Dress: Casual

Noise Level: High  read more »

Lighting: Low

• The Times' profile of Lincoln Center's rejuvenation hits upon the alluringly wider sidewalks, the historic significance, Eero Saarinen, and the conflict between the "tall fescue" grasses and "mid-Atlantic blue." As it happens, nothing is mentioned on the crack-selling Bloods Gang infiltration around the corner. (NY Times)
• Get excited for more Manhattan conventioneering! Mayor Bloomberg has schlepped all the way to Chicago to lure the 2008 Democratic National Convention to New York. (Apparently he's also been boozing up some powerful liberals.) After the Illinois trip, fittingly, he'll be sweet-talking the Republicans into coming back for a second grand ol' party. If he succeeds, the two conventions would bring in half a billion dollars. (NY Sun)
• Why stop at getting Yale kids to redesign Red Hook? The Cooper-Hewitt's City of Neighborhoods program stirs up the people's thoughts on city spaces like the Fulton Street Mall. Some popular suggestions for Fulton: skywalks, rooftop movie screenings and dance parties. (Metropolis)
• Big and Little Edie Bouvier Beale (above) are long gone from their 28-room Hamptons estate. Yet their spirits live on in Ben Bradlee and wife Sally Quinn, who have nightly ghoulish visitations at Grey Gardens. More glamorous are the "late afternoon" beach strolls, followed by "rosé for Sally, gin and tonic for Ben." God Bless the Hamptons. (NY Post)
• Things have gotten so bad that straight-faced news articles now pin the phrase "previous hot spot" onto the entire states of Florida, California, and New York. But is the onus on real estate, or on the real estate media? Probably the latter, at least when The Sun screams: "Some economists already believe that... the chances of a recession are growing." (NY Sun)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

  Don’t Call It an S.U.V.    read more »

• Tragically, the Hamptons seem to be languishing. Corcoran brokers have resorted to cable television ads, and to cutting the price of Moriches Bay mansions by $600,000. But it's not their fault: second home sales have been terrible everywhere. Yet there's hope for these lonely $5 million-plus Hamptons homes--because "this is a market that is driven by ego and wannabes." (New York Times)
• Things aren't looking so hot for new high-end American houses either. Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers shrieks that the downturn in residential construction is the worst of its kind in 40 years. According to the Toll chairman, the building boom is "turning into a bust," especially out in California, Vegas and Florida. The market is glutted--a deadly sin. (CNN/Money)
• But who cares about buying new luxury homes? Not New York. The apartment rental market has "never been stronger," says The Sun. In this case, strength means "vacancies hovering around 0%," which means "demand for rental housing going through the roof," which means "rents being increased by over 25% in the last five months." Never been better. (NY Sun)
• Or maybe everyone can head to Governor's Island, soon to be redeveloped into a mecca of New York hipness. Or will it? Proposals for the island range from a new Globe Theater, a Nickelodeon resort and theme park, a college campus, a London Eye-like ferris wheel, or a teen rehab center. Why not all five? (NY1)
• Or instead everyone can head to Clinton Hill, the lucky subject of a Post cover-story. This Brooklyn "dark horse" is selling its modern little brownstones for around $1 million, and so "nice restaurants, boutiques, a good butcher, cheese shop, all of that" are right around the corner. (New York Post)
• Extravagant Luxury of the Day: the co-op secret garden. Behind the Time Warner Center is a 2.5-acre wonderland, where the Coliseum Park Apartments planted 10,000 bulbs in 2003. (It reflects a "minimalist sensibility"). (New York Times)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, from his own screenplay, celebrates a world of drug crime and undercove  read more »

Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, from his own screenplay, celebrates a world of drug crime and under  read more »

Trinity Church had a problem.  read more »

A week ago last Saturday, the day before Mexico’s Presidential election, I was in Mexico City&  read more »

Forget immigration, global warning, Donald Rumsfeld and abortion rights.  read more »

Forget immigration, global warning, Donald Rumsfeld and abortion rights.    read more »

We finally got through The Times' story on Junior's cheesecake mystery and think it comes down to this: a guy in Florida whose dad opened a chain of Junior's restaurants says that Brooklyn's Junior's licensed the name, decorating style and cheesecake recipe for $100 a year back in 1950.

But it's not surprising that two restaurants were named Junior's or that two restaurants, whose founders were Jewish and grew up in New York, served cheesecake, so where is the proof? Hey, we love these speculative stories about the origins of everyday items but would like a little reason to believe.  read more »

Over the past couple yea