Congresswoman Frederica Wilson flew home to Miami for the weekend but not on a regular commercial or private airplane. Wilson (D-North Dade) accompanied 
President Barack Obama on Air Force One as the POTUS came to an event this afternoon at Coral Reef High School.
She also hopped on the President’s helicopter, Marine One, to get from the airport to the school.
According to a press release from Wilson’s office, Obama — who yesterday proposed to cut 6% of Medicare Advantage, a private Medicare insurance option, to fund the health-care law — was expected to speak at the school right about now about “expanding opportunity for the working class” and the role of education in achieving the American Dream.
Among those attending — in addition to your usual Democrat electeds –are mentors and participants in Wilson’s 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, a drop-out prevention and mentoring scholarship program for at-risk boys in Miami Dade Public Schools. The program, founded by Wilson in 1993, was recognized last week by the president at the unveiling of his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative to bring community leaders together to improve outcomes for young men of color facing tough circumstances.
And they are going to promote this at Coral Reef High? How many of the program’s role models go to that super magnet school? That was the best location?
Or is that the best location for the prez to drum up support for the most contested congressional seat in Florida and one of the most flippable in the U.S.?
Coral Reef is not in Wilson’s district. Rather, it is in the district in which Congressman Joe Garcia will face a challenger armed with not only references to the arrest of his chief of staff over absentee ballot fraud in his 2012 campaign, but also attacks related to Obamacare, the economy and the national debt in a bellwether district that is a third Democrat, a third Independent and a third Republican. And where the latter may be more motivated to vote.
So why wasn’t Garcia on the Air Force One? I don’t know. Maybe it is because Wilson is one of the most reliable democratic votes while Garcia has voted against the president 43 percent of the time, according to the Congressional quarterly record cited by a Palm Beach Post story last month that ranked U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy the 9th among House Dems that vote against the president. Garcia is 10th. Mighta been awkward in that tight little cabin.
But is posing for photo ops with an unpopular president whose rating dropped more than 20 points and has more disapprovals than approvals right now really a good idea? That’s the question posed by Anthony Mann, political writer at the Sun-Sentinel.
According to Former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, a Republican who says it doesn’t matter which party the fizzing out prez belongs to, the answer is no. He said that Obama is just good for raising money and that these photo ops will be used against the politicians who cozy up to this opportunity.
“They don’t want those pictures and they don’t want those news reports because the president is unpopular and growing more unpopular,” LeMieux was quoted as saying. “What their opponents are going to do is tether them to the unpopular president.”
What he means are mailers. Pictures of Obama and Garcia together will just give any of the three Republicans running in the primary for the chance to run against the congressman fresh images for the multiple mailers coming.
Wilson, who was also at the Michelle Obama event last month at Gwen Cherry Park, doesn’t have to worry about those images coming back to haunt her. The Congresswoman represents a Democratic stronghold — and has not yet drawn a challenge.
Frederica Wilson flew home Friday — with President Obama added by Ladra on
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