Skirting the edge of District 12 is Polk City, Florida, home of the Fantasy of Flight attraction, where Sarah Palin stumped with Governor Charlie Christ and Congressman Adam Putnam this afternoon. Although, I think "Fantasy of Fight" would be a more appropriate title for the event, as in it's a fantasy that they can win this fight.

POLK CITY, Florida (CNN) -- At a boisterous Sarah Palin rally in Polk City, Florida on Saturday afternoon, one name was surprisingly absent from the campaign décor -- John McCain's.

McCain's name nowhere to be seen at Palin rally

Sarah Palin received help from our state's popular governor, Charlie Crist, and Rep. Adam Putnam, while stumping in Polk City today. Don't look, Rednecks for Obama, Sarah Palin took the podium today to the strings of the country song "Redneck Woman."

For 27 minutes, she held the audience spellbound with the McCain/Palin plan for the nation. She was interrupted by thunderous applause, chants of "USA, USA," and even "Drill, baby, drill."

(snip)

Long before the governor of Alaska's noon meeting with the audience, members began cheering, doing the wave and listening to country music. The parking lot was a large array of not only family sedans and SUVs, but work vans and semi-trucks, one bearing the proud moniker, "Joe the Trucker."

When Palin mentioned "Joe the Plumber," a man in the crowd raised a sign that stated, "They can't have my religion, my gun or my bulldozer."

Audience Chants for Palin at Appearance

While the local news reporting left Adam Putnam's name completely out of the reporting about Sarah Palin's visit, the national news has picked up on it in conjunction with the fact there was something blatantly absent from the event ... John McCain. No, I don't mean in person. I mean, his name on signage wasn't to be found anywhere.

Members of the audience proudly waved "Country First" placards as Palin delivered her stump speech. Those signs were paid for by the Republican National Committee.

The other sign handed out to supporters read "Florida is Palin Country," but those signs were neither paid for by the Republican National Committee nor the McCain campaign. In small print, the signs were stamped with the line "Paid for and authorized by Putnam for Congress" -- as in, the re-election campaign of Florida congressman Adam Putnam, whose district skirts Polk City.

In fact, Putnam's name was considerably more prominent than was McCain's -- his campaign had placed a number of large "Putnam for Congress" banners around the event site.

McCain's name nowhere to be seen at Palin rally

In its reporting of the even, MSNBC only mentions Adam Putnam almost as an afterthought in the final sentence of the article.

Palin has elicited the help of the state's popular governor, Charlie Crist, and Rep. Adam Putnam was at the Polk City stop as well.

Welcome To 'Palin Country'?

As I explained in yesterday's diary at DailyKos about FL-12, Adam Putnam supports the selection of Palin, even while many Republicans are distancing themselves from the McCain-Palin campaign and voicing concerns about McCain's judgment in selecting Palin to be his running mate in the first place.

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Yesterday's endorsement of Putnam by The Ledger, was not received well by local visitors to the newspaper's forum. One commenter said,

I am amazed that any real newspaper would reach the conclusion reached here. Do they read their own newspaper? Are they happy with what's going on in America? Do they not listen to Americans who are calling loudly for change?

Doug Tudor, while not an experienced Congressman yet (of course not, no non-incumbent is), is such a superior choice to Adam Putnam, who hails himself as a leader. So when are leaders held accountable? How screwed up do things have to get?

This debate is over for me - the choice is simple - vote for Doug!

While another noted, quite correctly in my opinion,

Casual observer here.

This endorsement reads like a backhanded compliment. The best thing they have to say about Putnam is that he has lots of experience and maybe he wont tow the party line so much when he's in the congressional minority. What?!? And that's after pointing out that he started out greener than tea leaves.

Seriously, this is actually an endorsement of Doug Tudor. Why doesn't the Ledger have the political will to do it outright? Why disguise it in this lame endorsement of Putnam?

Today The Ledger published another letter critical of Adam Putnam. This time the writer addresses Putnam's vote on issues involving torture.

As a constituent and person of faith, I am very disappointed that Rep. Adam Putnam has so often failed to vote against torture. He voted for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, giving the president authority to re-interpret the Geneva Conventions and to define what constitutes torture. He voted against habeas corpus rights for detainees, a position at odds with rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. And he voted against requiring the videotaping of interrogations to document detainee treatment and to prevent abuse.

He has also failed to support legislation that would make the CIA abide by the guidelines in the Army Field Manual, which prohibits waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. In fact, he twice voted against such legislation this year - once when it was passed by the House, and again when the House attempted to override the president's veto.

If more members of Congress would vote to end torture instead of voting to allow immoral practices, we could end the use of torture. Please consider the issue of torture as you cast your ballots in this crucial election.

GREGORY ESTEVE
Lake Wales

Put Stop to Torture

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This race is being ignored completely by the mainstream media and political blogs, like this one. But, mark my words, Adam Putnam is in trouble. Political observers may be pondering the fate of Putnam's leadership position in the next Congress, but they neglect to consider the fact that Putnam could very well lose this election. He's never had a real challenger before, but this time he has a strong opponent in Doug Tudor.

More dire may be that the GOP will face a net loss of as many as 30 seats nationally in the House, including a net loss of two from Florida -- even with a McCain victory.

Such a dismal showing in the congressional races could suddenly bring down to earth what has been the swift political ascendancy in Washington of Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow as a top House Republican.

(snip)

And Putnam himself recently angered some rank-and-file House conservatives by supporting the Wall Street bailout.

Putnam acknowledges there has been talk of a potential purge of current GOP House conference leaders after this election. Upset and angry, remaining rank-and-file members may turn to more conservative members, like Virginia's Eric Cantor, to lead rebuilding efforts.

"Elections have consequences," said Putnam, on whether his position as conference chairman -- the No. 3 House Republican -- could be in jeopardy if the GOP conference is reduced after election losses to its most-ideologically conservative members.

New House GOP leadership elections, which will be held behind closed doors, are already set for Nov. 17 in Washington.

However, there is some uncertainty over whether Putnam, who only took his leadership role two years ago and at age 35 is one of the House's youngest members, will be among those also targeted in any leadership purge, said David Wasserman, an expert on the House with non-partisan Cook Political Report.

McCain's Electoral Fate Could Impact Florida GOP

As yet another commenter said in the responses to The Ledger's endorsement:

Adam Putnam's vote on the bailout bill made him lose my vote forever.

I'm a republican.

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Please support Doug Tudor's campaign. If you don't live here in Central Florida, you might be wondering, "why should I support a campaign that is not in my district?" The answer is simple. As a member of the Republican leadership in the House, Adam Putnam will be the obstructionist in chief to anything President Obama is trying to accomplish. Putnam's role in the House doesn't just impact FL-12, it impacts all working families throughout the nation. The result of the FL-12 race has an effect on all of us!

If you are able, Please Contribute to Doug Tudor for Congress. Any amount is greatly appreciated. Every dollar puts Doug closer to victory in his race against Adam Putnam.

Those that think that Adam Putnam's seat in Congress is safe this election year, and are not paying attention to this R+5 district, with 20,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, haven't been speaking to the people who actually live in this District.

Thank you to everybody here who has been support of Doug Tudor's campaign, and my efforts to draw attention to it.