Hours after the country learned of the horrific shooting massacre in Colorado last Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took to the airwaves of his weekly radio show to demand that President Obama and Mitt Romney discuss the issue of guns in our culture. The co-chair of the national group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Bloomberg is hardly a neutral observer when it comes to the issue.
On Wednesday both presidential candidates took up Bloomberg and discussed the issue in more depth than they have all week. In New Orleans, Obama said that he believed "that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminal. That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities," later emphasizing a need for background checks and the prevention of "mentally unbalanced" individuals from obtaining guns.
Meanwhile speaking with Brian Williams in a pre-recorded interview on NBC News, Romney said “It was illegal for him (James Holmes) to have many of those things already, but he had them," referring to his Holmes extensive arsenal that he used to shoot and hit 70 people.
The problem with Mitt's statement was that it was not accurate. As Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said: “All the weapons that he possessed, he possessed legally. And all the clips that he possessed, he possessed legally. And all the ammunition that he possessed, he possessed legally."
I know Bloomberg won't be satisfied with just those comments, but it remains dubious whether we'll hear anything more the rest of this campaign on the issue of gun control.
In the news: the stink around Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll's statement that lesbians don't look like her is only growing. Whether it will compel her to eventually apologize is anyone's guess.
After the Tampa Bay Times endorsed former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon in the U.S. Senate Primary, expected nominee Connie Mack IV responded by blasting the Times political editor Adam C. Smith. Perhaps afraid of a similar reaction, the Naples News yesterday praised Weldon to the heavens, but opted only for a wishy-washy "no endorsement."
And three hawkish GOP U.S. Senators led by John McCain come to Tampa next week to rip President Obama for potentially huge defense cuts that Republicans voted for a year ago……
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.