McCain and Obama Battle For Florida

In the final days before the election, the Sunshine state that once helped John McCain to the Republican presidential nomination could now be the one that costs him the White House.

The lead McCain had in Florida for most of the year has slipped away largely due to Democrat Barack Obama's aggressive campaigning efforts and the public's reaction to bad financial news, leaving Florida, the largest of the battleground states, a tossup. Watch the accompanying videos to see what politicians had to say...

Sunshine Vote Battle

"The stock market always does better when Democrats are in charge…What Barack is promising is tax cuts for the people who didn’t get one the last time under Bush..and secondly, when Clinton was on taxes—those eight years were the best eight years the country ever had."

—Gov. Howard Dean, Former Vermont Governor, DNC Chairman

Florida Feels the Heat

"Florida is not a state of large corporations, we don’t have a lot of Fortune 500 companies headquartered here. Florida has always been built on the spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity…Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been traveling and talking to small businesses and Barack Obama has a very solid plan to help small business, to encourage them to hire more people, to give them tax credits for providing health insurance. And the reason I think he is ahead in Florida is because he’s talking about the nation’s needs and everyday Americans…”

—Alex Sink, Chief Financial Officer, Florida

Florida Battle

"What really happened was AIG and Lehman —that’s what happened. The economy tanked and as that happened, the whole national race changed. We were up seven points in Florida at that time, which is why at the end of the day, we’ll come back and win this state. I really think that this is the state that roots for McCain and once people go beyond the panic of the moment, which we have been in so many different market days, before people pull that lever they’ll come back to being a John McCain state."

—Sen. Mel Martinez, R-FL

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