On Second Thought--About Charlie Crist

In a comment I made on a recent post, I was a bit more generous to current Florida Governor Charlie Crist than I should have been. In the back of my mind, I seemed to remember some things from the past that should have guided me toward a less generous rating of "conservative" for the governor. So I started doing some background research, and am revising my position. It doesn't necessarily negate my position that once the primaries are over, the Florida Republicans should rally around the candidate, but at least I owe it to our readers to be a bit more exacting about Crist himself.


At this point, I must put him to the left-end of moderate, although I would still not go so far as to call him a RINO. Crist is in an early donnybrook for the Florida Republican nomination for Senator in 2010. At first a very popular governor among all stripes in the Republican Party, his image has taken some serious tarnishing recently. His biggest problem at this point is his major conservative opponent, Marco Rubio (pictured).

Crist's initial popularity had kept his favorable ratings in the mid to high sixties throughout the early phases of his term in office. But a recent poll taken by the Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times/Bay News shows Crist's current favorable rating at just about 42%, while his fair to poor ratings total 51%. That is a bad sign for a potential Senatorial candidate who would partially count on his popularity as governor to propel him into the Senate.

His biggest and most obvious mistake (which I mentioned in that earlier comment) was his enthusiasm for Obama's stimulus package. Several Florida newspapers described his support for the stimulus to be "giddy." He described the package in glowing terms which more befit a Democrat who doesn't know how money works. For instance: "I think it's fantastic. Are you kidding me? We don't have to raise taxes. We might be able to cut property taxes some more. We have more money for education, so we can increase per-student spending. We can spend more money on our roads and infrastructures. We can provide health care for our people. I mean it's remarkable."

That statement shows that Crist very likely has no understanding how money is made, that it doesn't arrive from heaven even if the messiah says so, and that "free" money from Washington always turns out to be hideously expensive, in multiple ways. He genuinely seems to believe the utterly ridiculous reports coming out of the Obama administration about how many jobs the stimulus has created or "saved." Even as I'm writing this article, bigger and deeper holes are showing up in the administration's phony calculations.

And if that isn't bad enough, Crist has hung his hat on the idea that the stimulus slush funds will pay for about 12% of Florida's annual budget. The small problem is that he's built it into his own thinking about the Florida budget without realizing (or at least admitting) that the funds are non-recurring, and can change with the wind (and the actions of the best suck-ups). And in following his beliefs, he has presented himself to the Florida voters in political ads as a self-described fiscal conservative. If that's conservative, I'd hate to see a liberal.

Forbes Magazine went out if its way to criticize Crist's naivete. "Relying on short-term manna from Washington to take care of recurring expenses is remarkably similar to what that Italian guy, Ponzi, got into so much trouble over." Conservative columnist Geroge Will calls Crist a "populist chameleon." Most conservative commentators have pointed out that Crist seems to have an inordinate affection for the president. And recent ads air "the embrace" that Crist laid on Obama during a visit to Florida. It was close to soft gay porn. At an Obama appearance at Ft. Myers, Crist was on the podium with him to extol the stimulus package. The crowd heard the speaker's chant of "Yes, we can. Yes, we can." Only the chant was led by Crist, not Obama.

Crist took so much heat for his coziness with Obama, the he has now felt it politically necessary to avoid any connection with him at all. Obama has made a couple of more recent trips to Florida, and the governor was AWOL. That may also be in part attributable to the fact that their poll numbers are beginning to look amazingly similar. Last week, Obama paid another visit to Florida, and when asked about it, Crist actually told reporters that he didn't know the president was in the state--for two days. "Where was he" asked Crist. The reporters looked suspicious at best. So Crist backed up and said he actually knew Obama was in the state, but he didn't know what the president's specific itinerary was. That produced some rather loud laughter among the reporters.

Crist also recently avoided an Obama visit to the opening of a solar energy plant in Arcadia, which Crist had also enthusiastically supported. And in keeping the spirit of Obama hope and change, he had supported the crippling proposal that by using "renewable resources" the state should require that Florida utilities produce 20% of their electricity using those resources, soon. Now he's backing away from the proposal, seemingly not out of genuine conviction, but because he sensed that the euphoric wind of government control of everything was quickly becoming extremely unpopular.

Moreover, Crist has shown himself not to be the sunny good guy candidate who just wants the best for everyone. A website was recently set up to malign Marco Rubio called TheTruthAboutRubio.com. Rubio supporters quickly traced the site to a Crist supporter who claimed to have been out of town when this occurred, and didn't even know who Rubio is.

Rubio, on the other hand, continues to work hard on demonstrating his conservative bona fides. Crist is pro-gun and anti-abortion, and moderate on social issues. Rubio is conservative on every count. As Rubio has pointed out, "We don't need two Democratic parties. Conservatives don't need to apologize for or abandon their principles and beliefs in order to win elections." A recent Rasmussen poll shows that Rubio's brand of conservatism fits just fine with the Florida electorate in a general election. Crist is slightly ahead of the potential Democratic nominee, South Florida Congress Critter Kendrick Meek. But Rubio in the same matchup beats the Democrat by three points more than Crist.

Republicans in Florida are not going to miss the clear facts of the out-of-power party's victories in New Jersey and Virginia. Run an open and honest campaign as a conservative, address the moderates and independents with courage and respect, and keep the campaign consistent and true to its high principles. Rubio seems to fit that bill. After reviewing Crist's history, I'm not so sure of him. It seems likely that the Senate seat will go Republican in either case, so Floridians should continue to take a good hard look at the new kid on the block. Crist is rolling in campaign funds and Rubio runs short nearly every week. That should not be the final determinant. And if I'm right about Rubio, it's time for the big bucks folks to start helping him out. Crist cannot continue to pretend Rubio doesn't exist much longer.

A final note. It's strange how little things can cause someone to decide to re-evaluate an earlier, less carefully-reasoned position. That is exactly what happened to me. Late yesterday, Fox News showed a clip of an interview with Crist during which a reporter asked a genuine question about how conservative and tea partiers are calling Crist a non-conservative. Instead of bristling or responding with a serious answer, Crist laughed, raucously, for a long time. It was so inappropriate, and such an obvious attempt to demean anyone who would question his conservative credentials that for me, it had exactly the opposite affect from what he intended. At that point, I knew it was time to check Crist out. He ain't the conservative I had previously thought him to be. Sorry, Charlie, we want tunas that taste good.