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Amercian Spectator: Please don’t, Charlie Crist

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From American Spectator: Please don’t, Charlie. Please don’t atomize a promising young Republican, who, if he emerges from this primary tested but unscathed, can hold the seat for the party and be a forceful voice for conservative change in Washington.

How did these supplicants do? We won’t know for a few weeks, but the early returns are not encouraging. The Governor’s Lincoln Day speech in Nassau County Friday evening was a classic case of Charlie being Charlie. (Nassau County, I should explain, has few loose ends, politically speaking. The GOP carried the county 72-28 for McCain-Palin in 2008. That was a big Democratic year. The GOP will do better next time. Together with its neighbor to the south, Duval, the two counties take biennial responsibility for overtaking the Democratic majority likely to materialize across the rest of the state.) The Governor, a man of no fixed ideological address, gave the most rightwing speech this reporter has heard in several decades of full political immersion. Crist began steadily enough by paying tribute to his mentor, Connie Mack, and then to his favorite President, Ronald Reagan. Losing control of the vehicle, he then sped through the yellow light and professed his love for Sarah Palin, an attachment previously well disguised. He went on to pronounce himself the biggest tax cutter in history and characterize the philosophical gyroscope guiding his every move as: “less government, more freedom.” He then wrapped his argument to the skeptical jury by noting, with dramatic pause, that his name in its original Greek form means, “disciple of Christ.” To those of us even casually acquainted with his record, Charlie seemed to be claiming to have been born again. Again. Full story here.

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.

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