Rick Scott, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, took aim at the Quran-burning event being led by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Wednesday. As an outsider fighting to turn our state around, my priority remains focused on creating jobs and getting Florida moving again, said Scott. But, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, anyone who seeks to lead this state has an obligation to speak out on an entirely different matter.

Florida politicians have lagged behind their national counterparts in offering their takes on the Quran-burning event led by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running in the U.S. Senate race without party affiliation, condemned it on Tuesday, members of the Legislature have been generally silent on the issue until Wednesday afternoon.

The campaign team of Rick Scott, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, said on Wednesday that its candidate had accepted two debates with state CFO Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee in the race. The first debate will be held by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association at Nova Southeastern University in Davie on Wednesday, Oct. 20. The second debate, sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times, will be held at the University of South Florida at Tampa and will be hosted by CNNs John King. Both debates will be broadcast across the state.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and possibly may run again in 2012, issued a strong statement on Tuesday taking aim at an event led by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville to burn Qurans on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Who is calling for a moment of rational thought from Pastor Terry Jones of the evangelical Dove World Outreach Center, asking him to please reconsider burning copies of Islam's holy books? Who are folks trying to get through to this man? Speaking from throughout the world:

With the Vatican, General David Petraeus and even Angelina Jolie weighing in on Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville leading a ceremony to burn the Quran on Saturday to remember the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, its no surprise that the Obama administration is starting to take aim at Jones plan as well.

Its been a busy week for the officials at the Vatican. Besides Benedict XVI weighing in on and helping suspend the sentence of a woman being stoned in Iran and preparing for his trip to England, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue criticized Pastor Terry Jones from the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville who is planning to hold a Quran-burning ceremony on Saturday -- the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The council called Jones plan an outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community.

In what could be good news for Gov. Charlie Crist, a new Rasmussen survey of likely Florida voters reports that 54 percent say neither Republican nor Democratic leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today. The pox on both partisan houses, which mirrors the national mood, is downright angry. Sixty-nine percent of Florida voters say they are angry at the current policies of the federal government, including 47 percent who are "very angry."

Angelina Jolie, who sees the world of Islam close-up in her capacity as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.'s refugee agency, spoke outWednesday in Islamabad, Pakistan to condemn Gainesville Pastor Terry Jones' plan to hold a Quran burning on Sept. 11. "I have hardly the words that somebody would do that to somebody's religious book," Jolie told reporters after visiting refugee camps in northwestern Pakistan, one of the areas hardest hit by floods.

With state CFO Alex Sink, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, saying earlier on Tuesday that she backed extending tax cuts implemented by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, her Republican rival Rick Scotts campaign team fired away at her for playing politics.

Alex Sink is trying to downplay her ties to President Barack Obama in this new ad attacking Rick Scott. "Unfortunately, Rick Scott seems to think running for governor is all about President Obama," she says in her ad. Ads launched by Rick Scott and the Republican Party of Florida have drawn connections from Sink to the Obama policies she has supported.

Republican congressional candidate Steve Southerland is getting some help from the Republican Party of Florida in his bid to challenge vulnerable Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd. On Tuesday, Ronnie Whitaker, the executive director of the RPOF, took aim at Boyd -- who won a Democratic primary overSenate Minority Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee by the skin of his teeth -- over Social Security.

While the great state of Florida celebrated its 165th birthday back in March, the nations oldest city marked its 445th anniversary on Tuesday. In an attempt to remove a French colonial settlement in present-day Jacksonville that threatened the treasure fleet routes, on Sept. 7, 1565, Spanish military leader Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed his forces and started erecting defenses to the south -- in present-day St. Augustine. The American colonial experience did not start with the Pilgrims or with Jamestown in 1607 -- it started here in Florida.

Libertarian gubernatorial candidate John Wayne Smith's explanation of his dismissal from the November ballot got a different twist from the Division of Elections today. While Smith blamed the state agency for "losing" his paperwork, Division of Elections spokeswoman Jennifer K. Davis said the office had contacted Smith three times since his June 16 filing in an effort to retrieve the requisite form designating a lieutenant governor running mate.

With Republican U.S. Senate nominee former House Speaker Marco Rubio off the campaign trail after the passing of his father, Rep. Jennifer Carroll, R-Jacksonville, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, will be hosting a rally for the Rubio campaign on Wednesday. Carroll, who was tapped by GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott last week, will be in Lakeland to meet with Republicans from Polk County.