Finally, An Honest Campaign Ad From Charlie Crist

Via Ace.

Stick with it for the payoff at the end.



Sometimes, it's the simplest of jokes that are the best.

The Other McCain has the original if you are so inclined to see it.


Cross posted here and here.

Charlie Crist Knows Waffles

So Charlie Crist would have us believe that he "misspoke" when he said he'd have voted FOR Obamacare.  What he really meant, he says now, is that he would have voted against it because it's too big and it cuts Medicare Advantage.  That was probably AFTER his handlers reminded him that lots of voters in Florida rely on Medicare Advantage and might think poorly of his position.  Oops.

It's kind of like his "misspoke" when he said he was absolutely going to run as a Republican in this Senate campaign:

“To put these rumors to rest once and for all, as we have said countless times before, Governor Crist is running for the United States Senate as a Republican. He will not run as an Independent or as a No Party Affiliation.

It's kind of like he "misspoke" when he spoke in support of the stimulus but backed off of that and said he never supported it.

"I know it will help my state and that's why I support it!"

While in November 2009 he says "I didn't endorse it!"

Actually, during the debate between Crist and Rubio in March of this year, Crist said he'd vote to repeal Obamacare but he's also said he would not scrap Obamacare.  Which is it?

Which is it, Charlie?  Make up your mind.

Cross posted at And So it Goes in Shreveport

Marco Rubio Responds To Moronic Dolt, Harry Reid

For starters, Harry Reid can't see much of anything beyond his own political divide. Which explains how he can say what he did about Hispanics. A republican Hispanic doesn't fit into his mindset. Worlds collide with dogs and cats living together or something.

Which brings us to Marco Rubio. Who happens to be Hispanic and a Republican running for Senate in Florida.



Reid has a 'D' after his name. Sadly, he can make stupid statements like he did and still be sitting as Majority Leader in the Senate.

Quarterly Campaign Report Is In For Marco Rubio

In the year ending 2009 quarterly report, Rubio raised $1.75 million.

The first quarter of this year, Rubio was up to $3.6 million.

This last quarter alone, Rubio has raised $4.5 million. Even former Crist donor, U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, has chipped into Rubio's campaign chest.

Crist, on the other hand, has gone from $2 million to $1.1 million to not disclosing what he's brought in so far.

Update: Crist finally chimed in with $1.8 million.

How About "Liar"?

This one's a knee slapper!



I've got a word or two....

As Jim Geraghty points out, this is the guy who swore on national television, multiple times, he was going to run as a Republican.  No ambivalence about it whatsoever.

And now this is the guy running as an independent and who got sued this week for refusing to return campaign donations from Republican donors who believed him.

I've got a word...how about LIAR?

(Cross posted at And So it Goes in Shreveport )

Crist Claims Ignorance

And so it begins.  The fallout of the Jim Greer arrest is about to rain down all over Charlie Crist.

Via The St. Petersburg Times:

Gov. Charlie Crist personally signed off on his former Republican Party chairman's confidential fundraising role with the state party, according to Jim Greer's attorney, whose allegation contradicts the governor's statement that he "didn't know anything" about the deal now part of a criminal investigation.

State investigators say Greer and the party's former executive director, Delmar W. Johnson III, secretly set up a shell company called Victory Strategies to divert party money and enrich themselves. Greer was charged Wednesday with fraud and money laundering.

Crist says the entire Greer incident is "surprising" and "unfortunate"  He says he didn't even know about the shell corporation Greer was using to funnel cash into his own pocket "until after Greer resigned in January."  Crist's explanation for not knowing the specifics?  He's too busy running the state.  He can't be bothered with the little stuff.

When did ignorance become an excuse?

Actually, ever the opportunist, Crist attempts to take credit for Greer's current legal troubles by explaining "I'm the one actually who empanelled the state-wide grand jury that came down with this decision."

Greer's attorney contradicts Crist's ignorance excuse, explaining that Crist signed off on the diversion of GOP funds:

Chase said Greer and Crist discussed the fundraising deal at least three times last year: at the golf tournament in February, over the summer; and in the fall at the Fisher Island home of the governor's wife.

"The governor knew about Victory Strategies from the very beginning," Chase said. "They all worked on it together. … They saw it as a way to save money."

Jennifer Rubin points out that Crist is certain to find out that he's the wrong candidate at the wrong time:

In an election year in which inside deals are under scrutiny (with the Sestak and Romanoff scandals swirling) and establishment candidates face a hostile electorate, Crist may find there is little patience for this sort of thing. And it’s a good reminder that the GOP inside the beltway political gurus (who backed Crist) often get it very, very wrong.

Some of us suggested a long time ago that Crist was the wrong guy.  It was the NRSC who thought he was the right guy.  They were wrong.

And so it begins.

(H/T:  Memeorandum)


(Cross posted at And So it Goes in Shreveport)

Four Reasons Why Crist Will Lose

It's always dangerous to get close to a backstabber. The news that Charlie Crist won't refund contributions he received from Republican donors inspired me to explain why Crist's independent campaign is doomed:

• Crist will get no more Republican money. Fundraising is crucial to politics, and there are no direct-mail lists of "raging moderates" who will donate to an independent Crist campaign. It was estimated in late April that Crist quit the GOP race with $6 million cash-on-hand. Based on his previous "burn rate," he's unlikely to have half that amount remaining by Labor Day. Florida is a large state where running TV ads statewide (from Miami to Orlando to Jacksonville to Pensacola) is very expensive. Crist will get buried under an avalanche of TV ads in September and October.
• Crist has no campaign "ground game" infrastructure. Who will be county chairmen and precinct captains for Crist? Where will he find volunteers to staff local offices, working the phones and handing out yard signs? Crist must build a campaign apparatus from scratch, while Rubio will have the well-established election machinery of the Republican Party working for him. As Rubio's senior advisors said in a memo last month, "Florida’s county GOP offices are some of the most organized and sophisticated in the country . . . Crist will be starting from scratch to recruit, organize and mobilize volunteers for his campaign, whereas both Marco and [Democratic candidate Kendrick] Meek will have built-in volunteer networks to draw from."
• Nobody trusts a traitor. And nobody respects a quitter, as Arlen Specter is belatedly learning. Like Specter's switch to the Democrats, Crist's decision to go independent was pure selfishness. Crist had expected his handpicked state GOP chairman Jim Greer to deliver the Senate nomination on a silver platter, and when that didn't happen, Crist decided to take his ball and go home. Think of how that lends itself to a devastating 30-second TV ad.
• Rubio will win the debates. For nearly a year, Crist avoided debating Rubio. Once they finally met in a debate -- March 28 on "Fox News Sunday" -- it was obvious why, and Crist quit the GOP primary less than a month later. At some point this fall, Crist will have to share a debate stage with Rubio and the Democrat, Meek. Charlie will lose that debate, too, for the simple reason that there is no persuasive political rationale for Crist's candidacy. If Florida voters want an Obama-hugging, stimulus-endorsing, liberal stooge for Harry Reid, they'll support Kendrick Meek.

And any Republican operative who hires on with the Crist campaign is committing career suicide. Working for a RINO is bad enough, but working for an ex-RINO loser . . . well, that's what pilots call an "unrecoverable error."

MARCO RUBIO FOR U.S. SENATE

Charlie Crist Campaigns To Obscurity

Charlie Crist is officially an independent. There's only one thing left to say to him.

Calling Charlie Crist "dishonest" is a nice way to say that is a two faced, despicable liar

Charlie Crist has put out a commercial that quotes Marco Rubio, who is kicking Crist's ass in the Florida Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate:

“…I am in favor of giving the Department of Environmental Protection a mandate that they go out and design a cap and trade, or a carbon tax program…”

Note the "..." that appear at the beginning and ending of Rubio's "quote". Choo choo Charlie is hoping that Florida voters won't find out what Rubio said on either end of that quote because if they do, it will show Crist's desperation and well as the cesspool that he is willing to bath in. Fortunately, Henry Lois Gomez at Babalu has the full transcript that Crist cherrypicked from in an attempt to mislead, no, lie to the people of Florida. Read Gomez's post and decide for yourself. A little context goes a long way.

Cross posted at Carol's Closet

Florida GOP Chairman Resigns

Jim Greer, Chairman of the Florida Republican Party, has resigned. This is excellent news for those of us who believe that candidates should be chosen by the voters rather than appointed by behind doors by a cabal of party insiders.

"I cannot be a participant in the shredding and tearing in the fabric of the Republican Party," said Greer, blaming his conservative critics for their plan to stage a divisive fight over his post at a party meeting Saturday. His critics were willing to "burn the house down and try to destroy the Republican Party," Greer said.

Greer, a close ally of Governor Charlie Crist, is the highest-profile casualty to date of the conservative insurgency that, in Florida, backs Marco Rubio against Crist.

"I am not a purist," Greer said, begging his fellow Republicans to "stop the fight between moderates and conservatives [and] focus on electing Republicans in 2010."

Greer sounds eerily like Sen. John Cornyn, head of the NRSC. Both cling to the fallacy that the voters don’t know what is good for them and therefore need the “leadership” to make all their important decisions for them. The Florida race between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio is a perfect example of this line of elitist thought.

Crist and Rubio both easily beat Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic candidate in the Florida senate race. Yet only Crist received the backing of Greer and Cornyn. Why? Because for all their bluster about getting Republicans elected, Greer and Cornyn don’t want just any Republican elected, they want their Republican elected even if the voters want someone else.

Voters expressing a preference for one candidate over another is not tantamount to “…the shredding and tearing in the fabric of the Republican Party,". It is democracy. Greer either doesn’t understand the process, or more likely, doesn’t believe in the process. Either way, his resignation is good news for Florida Republicans.

Cross posted at Carol’s Closet

Gov. Charlie Crist Leaves Tallahassee and Moves to Some Place Called 'Da Nile'

Exhibit A from the St. Pete Times:

"All in all, I think it's been a good year — a good year in challenging times," Crist said. "These are tough times. It sure hasn't been dull, to say the least, by any stretch."

If Good Time Charlie thinks it's been a good year he sure hasn't been hanging out in Florida.

Lets review:

He miscalculated the danger of his "man hug" with President Barack Obama in support of the Democrats' stimulus package. He signed a no-new taxes pledge only to raise taxes weeks later to balance the state budget. And the biggest contributor in his campaign for U.S. Senate, Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein, was charged in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

Speaking of that stimulus package that Crist supported and then denied that he supported and then denied that he denied supporting, what has Florida gotten out Crist's great big ol' man hug?

When Crist took office in 2007, the unemployment rate was 3.3 percent — less than a third of what it is now as more than 1 million Floridians can't find work. One in every 705 Florida homes was in foreclosure when he took office. Now the foreclosure rate is 1 of 165, according to RealtyTrac data service. (emphais added)

Even Crist's staunchest critics say many of Florida's woes are largely beyond his control. But they question whether Crist did what he could when he could. When the economy deteriorated, Crist paid visits to regional unemployment centers and held roundtable discussions with veterans and real estate agents, but he didn't propose and implement specific policies to halt the tide of foreclosures and layoffs. (emphasis added)

Crist has put his vastly unpopular "green policies" on the back burner but he himself admits that it is only a temporary move. He is currently touting "light rail" as his signature program. Apparently he is unaware that government backed railroad transportation has had a long history of abject failure.

Most damaging for Crist is the perception that Crist really doesn't stand for anything and that he is one of those politicians who sticks his finger in the air in order to determine the direction of the political winds. Consider this:

Newly married to New York socialite and businesswoman Carole Rome, Crist spent the days just before 2009 hunting for Christmas gifts in the rural North Florida antique mecca of Havana. There Crist ran into a local who paid him such a compliment that he pulled a reporter aside and made her repeat it. (emphasis added)

"I believe he's a closet Democrat," Shirley Aaron said.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Crist said. "We have, in Florida, Republicans and Democrats and independents, but we're all Floridians first."

If Crist knew or cared about the profound ideological differences between the two political parties he wouldn't feel complimented by being called a closet Democrat. But for Crist, ideology is only skin deep and can be easily shed when it no longer suits Crist's needs.

Now that Crist has tanked in the polls, he is trying make up his lost ground but pretending that everything is just fine in Florida won't get him very far. Come the August primary Florida voters will be voting on whether they believe things are just fine and who they will trust to represent them. I don't expect that a year from now Crist will be sounding as enthusiastic as he is trying to sound now.

Cross posted at Carol's Closet

Will Charlie Fall Down, Go Boom?

As we rush head-long into what appears to be a “Harry Christmas”, it seems the worm is turning in Florida’s U.S. Senate race. To wit:

In a move that may deal a significant blow to the governor’s campaign, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart have pulled their endorsement of Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Crist’s poll numbers have been slipping badly.

"We take our endorsements seriously, but the governor knows why we withdrew and he left us with no alternative,' Lincoln Diaz-Balart said.

There is heavy speculation that they are unhappy with a number of Crist’s recent policy decisions and a suggestion that Crist would be weak on Cuban policy. That last bit is a huge issue in South Florida. Lincoln Diaz-Balart has represented Florida's 21st District since 1992, which at 71%, has the highest Latino population in the state. Mario Rubio has represented the 25th District, with a 67% Latino population, since 1992.

For the moment, at least, it seems the Diaz-Balart brothers have no intention of officially throwing their support behind Crist’s primary challenger, former Florida State House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has been gaining steam among conservatives. But you have to wonder whether publicly retracting support for Crist amounts to the same thing.

Via Memeorandum

Posted by No Sheeples Here