U.S. Senate nominee Marco Rubio served up red meat for Florida's Republican faithful at the party's annual Statesman's Dinner Friday night in Orlando.
Invoking God and country, Rubio delivered a patriotic message saluting "the single greatest society in all of human history" while attacking Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
"By design or incompetence, people in Washington will rob us of everything that makes this nation exceptional,"the former Florida House speaker declared.
"This election is not just a choice between a Republican, a Democrat and an opportunist. It's a referendum on our identity. Do you want to be like every other country?" the first-generation Cuban immigrant asked.
Mixing his personal story with almost-religious patriotic fervor, the Miamian had the audience at Disney's Contemporary Resort alternately sitting in hushed reverence and roaring with applause.
Gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott received a somewhat more subdued reception two weeks after defeating party favorite Bill McCollum in last month's primary election.
Turning his fire on his Democratic rival, Scott assailed Alex Sink for "walking in lockstep with (President) Barack Obama.
"The most dangerous Obama liberals try to hide what they believe. Alex Sink is clearly trying to do that. She supported Obamacare. She supported the stimulus. Now she pretends she never heard of it."
After thanking party leaders who "came forward to support me in the last two weeks," Scott reminded the crowd that "competition makes us stronger." The former health-care executive then pledged that as the state's chief economic development officer, he would work to make Florida the "best state to do business in."
But, in a nod to those still-skeptical McCollumites, Scott declared, "We have to be united to win this fall."
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, in the evening's keynote address, picked up on Scott's plea by noting the absence of some diehard party members in the ballroom.
"There are some people who are sitting on their hands, and sitting on their wallets at the same time. We need every one of them involved on our team this year," Barbour said.
"People get their feelings hurt, people get perturbed. But the fact of the matter is, we have to come back together. Politics is a team sport. We get elected because everyone pulls together," he said.
Barbour, who chairs the Republican Governors Association, said, "We're united by great ideas -- lower taxes, less spending, rational regulation. These are things that unite us as Republicans, as we try to get our team back together."
Frequently mentioned as a possible presidential hopeful in 2012, Barbour said "2010 is the election that will start taking our country back.
"If we wait until 2012, the job will be immeasurably harder," said the two-term governor who chaired the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997, when Republicans captured both the Senate and House for the first time since 1954.
Party Chairman John Thrasher concluded the evening on an upbeat note, announcing that the night's fund-raising efforts pulled in "slightly over $2 million."
Thrasher, a state senator from Jacksonville who is also up for election, said the funds will help the state party finance "voter contacts that will rival presidential years."
Echoing Scott's campaign catchphrase, Thrasher closed the night of speeches with the benediction: "Let's get to work."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
