Initially scheduled for March, Florida fought to have its primary moved up to January this year — and lost 50 delegates in the process. With a record number of voters turning up to the polls, it's clear that the sunshine state wants to assert itself as a political kingmaker alongside Iowa and New Hampshire.

Political die-hards know how to truly gauge the mood of the country this primary season. You have to keep one eye on the television and one eye on Twitter. Sure you can read the story in the paper the next day, but the excitement develops in real time through a stream-of-conscious and subconscious that comes right into our laptops and iPhones. Takeaway co-host John Hockenberry takes a look at how the story of Florida's GOP primary unfolded on the ubiquitous social media tool.  

The Republican candidates kicked off their Florida campaigns at last night's debate in Tampa. Florida is the first Republican presidential battleground with a significant Latino population, and as Mitt Romney battles Newt Gingrich for the lead in the Sunshine State, Latinos across the country are taking note. How the candidates position themselves on immigration and court the highly influential Cuban-American vote remains to be seen.

After Iowa and New Hampshire, the next big competition for the Republican nomination lies in the South. With strong GOP bases in both Florida and South Carolina, the candidate that carries either state will need to appeal to a pool of voters that are more racially diverse than their northern counterparts. However, currying the favor of this mix of social, fiscal, and military conservatives will require a great deal more money, something that some campaigns are running short on.

The New York police department arrested over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters Saturday, for allegedly walking across the Brooklyn Bridge's roadway, instead of using the pedestrian path. Now in its third week, the movement has spread to other cities around the nation. Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to testify before Congress tomorrow on the economic outlook for the country, and unemployment figures are set to be released Friday, as President Obama continues to push his jobs bill. And Nevada has moved its caucus date back, ahead of Florida's, which will likely affect the race for the Republican nomination.

There are still months to go before voters even begin the nominating contest for the Republican party's presidential candidate. But the surprising results of Florida's presidential straw poll on Saturday are getting a lot of attention. Businessman Herman Cain won the poll in a landslide victory with 37 percent of the vote. He isn't a candidate we think of being among the front runners but his comments in these past few weeks have been memorable. Texas governor Rick Perry got just over 15 percent, Mitt Romney 14 percent, and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann came in last. Marc Caputo, political reporter for the Miami Herald, joins us to talk about the poll results.

Hurricane Irene has made its way through the Caribbean and is traveling to the eastern shore of the United States. In North Carolina, communities like Ocracoke Island have been evacuated. But many residents are still waiting to see whether Irene will be hitting their town.

In the first major case of homegrown terrorism in this post-Osama bin Laden era, six people were indicted by the FBI for funneling around $50,000 to terrorists in Pakistan. Two of those arrested were imams from south Florida. Nearly ten years out from the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, we evaluate how the relationship between federal law enforcement officials and Muslim communities has evolved in order to more effectively work together to prevent homegrown terrorism. Asad Ba-Yunus, a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney who now serves as legal adviser for the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations.

Monday afternoon, two Florida imams are scheduled to be arraigned in a federal court in Miami after being arrested for allegedly providing financial support for the Pakistani Taliban. Imam Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan runs the city's oldest mosque, the Flagler Mosque. He, in addition to his two sons, and three others in Pakistan, were indicted for supporting terrorist organizations in Pakistan. Jay Weaver, federal courts reporter for The Miami Herald, talks about the case and the role of the Khan family in Miami.

The stage is set for the swearing-in ceremony of Florida governor, Rick Scott. The republican rode a wave of anti-incumbent fever to become the new governor of Florida. Voters wanted an outsider and that's exactly what they got. However, along with his outsider status, Scott has the baggage of being the former head of Columbia/HCA, which was at the center of a Medicaid fraud scandal.

Author Carl Hiaasen is not afraid to call a spade a "phony with a $134 haircut" — even when the man in question is the Senator-elect from Florida, Marco Rubio. Hiaasen is a Miami Herald columnist and novelist, has been praised for writing with "wit, style and an abiding sense of justice," and he brings that sensibility to tracking Florida's Senate and gubernatorial races.

We take a look at Florida's Senate and gubernatorial results with Hiaasen.

Competitive three-way races continue to be a rarity, but the introduction of the Tea Party has increased those numbers this election season. In states where they are taking place, third-time has not proved a charm for political analysts.Instead, it has skewed the numbers and may lead to surprising results in some critical races.

In Alaska, analysts see Tea Party Republican candidate Joe Miller splitting the moderate to liberal Republican vote between incumbent Lisa Murkowski, running as a write-in candidate, and Democrat Scott McAdams. Florida may prove a mirror-image to Alaska's three-way race: Republican Tea Party candidate Marco Rubio polls as the most likely to win the Senate seat, but after a nod from former President Bill Clinton, Gov. Charlie Crist looks set to take some ballots away from Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's expected announcement of billions of dollars in federal grants for high speed rail today is beginning on a sour note. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that he is stopping construction of an $8.4 billion Hudson River rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York. Citing billions of dollars of expected cost overruns, Christie says his "decision is final." This comes after LaHood made a personal appeal to Christie, and negotiations between the Obama and Christie administrations.

With Republicans running against President Obama's stimulus, an issue that's resonated with voters, LaHood's announcement comes at a questionable time. There will be events in Iowa, Michigan, California. There's also money for Connecticut and Florida. These are all states with close races. How is this going to affect the midterm elections?

Voters in Florida have been party to two unusual races this election season. The Senate race has the incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Crist is in a three-way race as an independent against Tea Party-supported Marco Rubio and Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek.

Vying for the governor's office are Republican candidate Rick Scott, running head to head against the state's chief financial officer, Alex Sink, the only Democrat to come this close to the office in decades, in a race that has the candidates accusing one another of fraud.

This against a backdrop of a state in dire straits. Florida's unemployment is fourth highest in the country at 11.9 percent, the foreclosure rate is second highest in the country. More than 20 percent of the state's residents are uninsured.

Last week, things looked a lot different for aspiring gay and lesbian parents in Florida, where a ban on adoption by gay couples has been in place since the 1970s. But after 13 months, the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami struck down the ban, saying it was unconstitutional. One of the people rejoicing today is former television anchor Charles Perez, who joined us last week to talk about the ban.

To people in Miami, Charles Perez is a familiar face. He used to be a television news anchor, and he’s currently writing a book called “Confessions of a Gay Anchorman.”

But behind Charles’s familiar face and authoritative television presence is a journey to parenthood that has been incredibly difficult, at times. Charles and his husband wanted to adopt a child. But in the state of Florida, it’s still against the law for gay and lesbian people to adopt. In order to adopt, they temporarily moved to Illinois, and then later to Kansas, where they were eventually able to adopt their daughter.

Our political coverage of the midterms turns to Florida. The Sunshine State has been in the international limelight for weeks, following Pastor Terry Jones’ threats to publicly burn Korans. With the bonfire cancelled and the 9/11 anniversary past, we talk this morning about a state full of voters whose opinions range the gamut on the Koran burning issue and the three-way race for U.S. Senate that’s been heating up for months. 

Reverend Terry Jones, leader of the Dove World Outreach Center, a tiny Pentecostal church in Gainesville, has backed down from his plan to burn the Quran. Reverend Jones’ plan to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of September 11^th lit an international firestorm. Now Reverend Jones says he will not burn any Qurans – and he doesn’t think anyone else should, either.

The results are in for the Sunshine State's most expensive and, arguably, nastiest primary in history.  

On Tuesday, Florida's voters head to the polls to vote in primaries for U.S. Senate and governor. Sergio Bustos, state politics editor at The Miami Herald, and Kate Zernike, reporter for our partner The New York Times, describe how the races have been shaping up and what we can expect on Tuesday. Plus, we'll find out what the Sunshine State can tell us about the national political mood.