Posts Tagged → Charlie Crist
Rubio takes lead in Florida Senate race
When he started his campaign, the GOP establishment begged Mark Rubio not to challenge Charlie Crist and they gave Rubio almost no chance of winning, predicting he’d fare as well as Wal-Mart tin cookware would do pitted against high-quality enamel cookware. In other words, not very well at all.
But a new Fox News/Pulse poll just released puts Rubio well ahead of his competitors; Rubio polls at 43 percent in the state, while independent former GOP governor Charlie Crist polls with 27 percent, and the Democrat nominee, Meek, barely registers 21 percent. With a 16-percent lead, Rubio is looking to be the man to beat come November.
McCain VP targets: Charlie Crist
There are two main reasons Florida governor Charlie Crist is being mentioned as one of the first three VP candidates GOP presidential nominee John McCain will consider to run alongside him in November. First, his predecessor Jeb Bush is too toxic in this Bush-weary nation to invite onto the ticket, and second, he’s the popular governor of a key battleground state that is a huge electoral jackpot in November that most analysts agree McCain will need to carry agains Obama to keep the White House in GOP hands.
Yet there are a world of troubles with Crist, and you can’t buy memory enough to forget these negatives.
First, Crist is nearly as liberal as McCain, although he has a shorter track record in public life; that wouldn’t sit well with party conservatives who are already turned off to the McCain ticket and would be likely to skip the presidential portion of the ballot, or vote Bob Barr on the Libertarian ticket, if McCain chooses another liberal as his running mate.
Second, Crist doesn’t have Romney’s fundraising acumen, which is not an inconsiderable factor.
Third, all Crist brings to the table is Florida, which although key, is pretty much his only asset.
In all, since I’d rather see Jindal mature a bit before being thrown to the wolves of the national liberal media elites, and since Crist is not enough of a balance to the ticket, in the end I think Mitt Romney makes the most sense for McCain, of the three candidates mentioned.
Of course, there are always more folks out there who could come into play down the line, if none of these three want it. But a McCain-Romney ticket wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially if it lead to a Romeny-Jindal ticket four or eight years from now.
