In Florida, Rick Scott and the Republican Party are sending mixed messages:

In a new television ad, the Romney campaign plays melancholy music as it describes “Obama’s Florida” as a state with “8.6 percent unemployment, record foreclosures, 600,000 more Floridians in poverty.” [Gov. Rick] Scott greets the same 8.6 percent unemployment number as a sign of rapid improvement, proclaiming on his website that it is “the lowest it’s been since December 2008!” … The real numbers tell an even different story [sic]. When Obama took office in January 2009, Florida’s unemployment was at 8.7 percent, nearly identical to where it is today. It rose to 11.4 percent in January 2010, had dropped to 10.9 percent by the time Rick Scott took office in January 2011 and has been dropping somewhat steadily since.

As Scott touts his job-creating record, he undercuts Romney’s narrative that the economy is still in the gutter. There may have even been some trepidation about inviting him to the convention, considering RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’ mealy-mouthed response to a reporter asking whether or not he would be invited to speak.

“I mean he’s the hometown governor,” Priebus said. “I’m sure he’s got, I’m sure he’s got plenty, uh, you know, I’m sure there’s a welcome, you know, there’s a lot of protocol there too, so I don’t want to get into the details because I don’t know what the answer to that is yet.”

He’s very unpopular in his own state, too. Scott essentially has to make the same argument Obama is running on at the state level, that despite less-than-encouraging economic growth, it would have been worse without his leadership.

On a different note, the first in what is sure to be a deluge of Florida “Mediscare” ads has arrived:

Conventional wisdom aside, I’m skeptical of how much voters actually believe this stuff, but the Romney campaign still needs to make the case that staying the government-run course on Medicare will lead us all to Abilene. Attack ads like the one below aren’t the way to do it, for several reasons. First, the spot distracts from Romney’s central argument about the economy, that the fundamental problem is businesses aren’t growing and hiring. Second, it’s misleading, and third, nobody wants to hear a guy worth a quarter-billion dollars say, in essence, ‘get off your couch lazybones!’:

On the other hand, would-be Medicare reformers underestimate the venality of elderly Florida voters at their own peril, who seem perfectly happy to let their public education system continue to deteriorate after being sold a pile of pseudo–privatization gimmicks like online K-12 schooling.