Searching out agenda-promoting optics that can be converted to campaign-ad fodder later is a political given. And Gov. Rick Scott, as we’ve seen, has been in this mode for months. Dropping by Eustis or The Villages when your poll numbers are still awful is obviously of no re-election help. So, venues such as teacher-wooing schools have become a prime, de facto campaign gambit.
But it’s wincing to see all those pep-rally photo-ops with teachers and administrators who must surely be aware of their hypocritical prop status. But it’s downright duplicitous to see little kids, such as the fourth- and fifth-graders at Tampa’s Alexander Elementary, who were cued to thank Scott out loud last week.