As the 2012 presidential campaign moves along ever so slowly with no primaries scheduled for another week, is there anybody out there excited about any candidate running for president right now?
The Sunday copy of the Tampa Tribune contained an above-the-fold article by chief political reporter William March on the Obama campaign's operation in Florida, in which aides call it "the biggest grass-roots campaign organization in Florida history."
Expect to see more stories echoing that theme throughout the year. The infrastructure is very solid for Obama in the Sunshine State, though officials in the re-election campaign are notoriously tight-lipped on the numbers of staffers or volunteers working the effort.
With a recent uptick in the economy, the president's chances of winning Florida look better than they have in the past year, although with over eight more months to go before the general election, the nice wave could prove to be a temporary blip. With gas prices and the European financial crisis still in flux, anything can happen.
As the election nears, no doubt many progressives who have been turned off by Obama's more pragmatic approach may start coming around. But nobody, least of all Obama, thinks he'll generate the intense excitement seen in 2008.
And in the Republican ranks, the lack of excitement is becoming a little deja vu-ish of 2008, when it took Sarah Palin's selection to the ticket for the grass roots to get fired up. The eventual candidate presumably will get all of the anti-Obama vote, though the reduced turnout in the primaries so far seems to put that theory into some question.
There is one GOP candidate who generates real passion. But his name is Ron Paul, and even he doesn't think he's going to get the nomination.
