The Talking Heads’ 1983 “Burning Down The House” video (above) features an appearance by the late actor and comedian Rockets Redglare. Sen. Marco Rubio’s “Save The Whole House Or It Will All Burn Down” video features an appearance by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, around the 7:40 mark.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio‘s Saturday speech on the national debt is a YouTube sensation, drawing more than 310,000 hits as of this afternoon and possibly boosting his standing among independent voters.

(By comparison, it appears the most YouTube hits for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson were generated by this 106,000-view gem from 2009 in which he and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sing Elton John‘s Rocket Man.)

Rubio backers suggest his debt speech contributed to a sudden improvement in Rubio’s approval/disapproval rating among independents — from 40/35 in a Quinnipiac poll taken July 27 through Sunday to 54/29 in a poll taken Monday and Tuesday.

Former Florida Gov. and Sen. Bob Graham, a co-chair of the presidential commission that began hearings on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill today in New Orleans, has a long record of opposing drilling off the coast of Florida.

But in 2004, Graham and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry took pains to distinguish between politically unpopular drilling off Florida and presumably safer drilling farther away in “the deep water” in the Gulf of Mexico.

When the two appeared together in Tampa in April 2004, Kerry was asked about drilling.

The Massachusetts Senator gave a long answer typical of what his supporters celebrated as “nuance” and his critics blasted as all-things-to-all-people waffling.

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UPDATE: Democratic activist and prolific lensman Rick Neuhoff has posted a large collection of photos of Joan Joseph here. Also, a memorial page has been set up here.

Joan Joseph, a Jupiter resident who was a key political operative for candidates from Barack Obama to West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, died early today of cancer.

Mrs. Joseph, 64, was a go-to figure for Democratic candidates seeking to build a grass-roots organization in Florida. She was a paid staffer in Palm Beach County for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, then was the statewide coordinator of volunteers for John Kerry’s 2004 campaign.

When Barack Obama launched his presidential bid in early 2007 as a decided underdog, Mrs. Joseph was a key early organizer in Florida.

“She was one of the first people that we went to for Obama” in Florida, said Kirk Wagar, who was the Obama campaign’s Florida finance chairman. Obama’s first major Florida event, a March 2007 “low-dollar” fund-raiser that drew about 1,000 people to the Palm Beach County Convention Center, was largely put together by Mrs. Joseph, Wagar said.

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