Don't think this is carolina or perplexus, as both of those are uniformly red....but, I don't have a viable alternative in mind, either. Polistes are often exceptionally difficult to ID because there is so much individual variation within each species.

But this is the only thing which convinced me otherwise. This wasp has a lot of black on her abdomen
http://bugguide.net/node/view/251313/bgimage

The "black" areas on the linked image are not actually black. It is a condition that can be seen occasionally in Polistes, when dark tissue shines through the (otherwise reddish) cuticle to create a reddish-black impression.

To add to the confusion I need to mention that Floridian species A can have the same colour pattern as the wasp on the main image (I have seen one female from Gainesville in the U.S. National Museum). These would be very hard to separate from carolina based on an image. Overall their thoracic cuticle is more shining than in carolina.

Eric is generally right. However, I have seen and collected P. carolina with fairly extensive yellow markings like this one in Florida. Florida fuscatus have patterns that are similar to metricus (with much black on the abdomen). Perplexus seems rare in FL and would not have a yellow band on tergum 1.

Thank you all for the ID and the educational discussion of the photograph.