Would You Make a Deal With Rick Scott?

There was an column in the Orlando Sentinel Thursday, March 31 by Mike Thomas talking about how Governor Scott is already very unpopular. Unfortunately for all of us, just because Rick Scott is low in the opinion polls doesn't mean his tenure will be shorter. The only thing to do now is watch and learn.

One of the key problems with this man, no matter your political persuasion, is that he is in the process of removing all good faith we have in regards to business and/or government negotiation. There is enormous uncertainty with what he'll do. You can't negotiate and feel confident in the result if you don't trust the person or organization your negotiating with. Today our CEO is Rick Scott, and any trust for him and his government is quickly disintegrating. He ignores past agreements made by the state of Florida because he says he is "reasessing" them. He refuses to speak to the media, so nobody really knows what he thinks. His counterparts in the Florida legislature seem mostly intent on "moving on up" to the federal government level that they supposedly despise. No serious national or international business is going to work hard to win favor with such a precarious government just because it says it's "business friendly". They didn't become international corporations by making deals with a bunch of unpredictable bumpkins.

I had a letter published in the Orlando Sentinel in which I mentioned that Scott's election was mostly an example of how our election process has failed us. I stand by this assessment. I'm almost glad he was elected because the ridiculous condition of this process can now be scrutinized with a living, unblinking example of just how badly it can turn out. This office was bought. Until we can successfully extract money from the election equation, we will continue to risk getting another Rick Scott. Maybe when the country and the world are finished laughing at us the incentive will be great enough to make solid and permanent changes to the way we elect our leaders.


In the meantime, Lord help us.

In my humble opinion,

Chuck Marshall