Word: dibenigno
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...DiBenigno, 42, is right about the solidifying of the Cuban vote, then trends in the middle of the state, especially along the all-important I-4 Corridor, and the north, where regions like the northwest Panhandle are very reliable GOP terrain, would indeed bode well for McCain in Florida. "Our chances look very good right now," says DiBenigno, who has come under criticism among Republicans the past couple months for McCain's slip in the Florida polls, but whose counsel and on-the-ground knowledge, say backers, has too often been ignored by the McCain campaign's national bosses...
John McCain's Florida campaign director, Arlene DiBenigno, just got an election-day boost from Havana. To win the nation's largest swing state, it's imperative that McCain hold on to South Florida's Cuban-American votes, which usually swing strongly Republican but which Democrats believe they can divide this year. Those voters may have gotten an added impetus to go for McCain a few hours ago when Fidel Castro, Cuba's ailing ex-President and scourge of the Miami exile community, voiced praise for (but didn't outright endorse) Obama: "Without a doubt," Castro wrote this morning...
...raucous midnight rally at the University of Miami this week, DiBenigno notes, some 8,000 people turned out, and many were young Cuban Americans, "dancing and swaying to the same music their parents and grandparents listen to" as well as sharing the same political concerns. That includes, she argues, their ardent opposition to any kind of dialogue with the Castros, which Obama might be more open to. "And don't forget what 'redistribution of wealth' means to Cuban Americans," DiBenigno adds. "It means the kind of policies that came to power in Cuba in 1959. That...
Either way, DiBenigno may well be right about the effect of Castro's Election Day praise for Obama - and Castro himself may want it that way. Castro watchers have long believed that he and Cuba's leaders prefer Republican U.S. Presidents who hold the hard line against the communist island, because it gives them a yanqui enemy to help rally domestic political support. McCain, Castro wrote in his statement today, is more "bellicose" than Obama - and that may be just what el comandante prefers. - By Tim Padgett / Miami...
...DiBenigno's coordination skills have come under scrutiny of late, but LeMieux, who thinks McCain can still win Florida, insists that "Arlene is an excellent campaign strategist" who helped forge Crist's image as a "bipartisan problem solver who stands out in juxtaposition to today's Washington...