Why former Rep. governor Charlie Crist is voting for Obama

[GreasyQtip]

The words in this essay express a lot of the frustrations people are having with the GOP currently. I am excited an former republican governor and state senator has come out and worded others feelings so eloquently. I can only hope more people come out and express their views rather than being scared of the party who refuses to work with anyone who doesn't share their view.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/colu...-obama/1247631

I’ve studied, admired and gotten to know a lot of leaders in my life. Across Florida, in Washington and around the country, I've watched the failure of those who favor extreme rhetoric over sensible compromise, and I've seen how those who never lose sight of solutions sow the greatest successes.

As America prepares to pick our president for the next four years — and as Florida prepares once again to play a decisive role — I'm confident that President Barack Obama is the right leader for our state and the nation. I applaud and share his vision of a future built by a strong and confident middle class in an economy that gives us the opportunity to reap prosperity through hard work and personal responsibility. It is a vision of the future proven right by our history.

We often remind ourselves to learn the lessons of the past, lest we risk repeating its mistakes. Yet nearly as often, our short-term memory fails us. Many have already forgotten how deep and daunting our shared crisis was in the winter of 2009, as President Obama was inaugurated. It was no ordinary challenge, and the president served as the nation's calm through a historically turbulent storm.

The president's response was swift, smart and farsighted. He kept his compass pointed due north and relentlessly focused on saving jobs, creating more and helping the many who felt trapped beneath the house of cards that had collapsed upon them.

He knew we had to get people back to work as quickly as possible — but he also knew that the value of a recovery lies in its durability. Short-term healing had to be paired with an economy that would stay healthy over the long run. And he knew that happens best by investing in the right places.

President Obama invested in our children's schools because he believes a good education is a necessity, not a luxury, if we're going to create an economy built to last. He supported more than 400,000 K-12 teachers' jobs, and he is making college more affordable and making student loans, like the ones he took out, easier to pay back.

He invested in our runways, railways and roads. President Obama knows a reliable infrastructure that helps move people to work and helps businesses move goods to market is a foundation of growth.

And the president invested in our retirement security by strengthening Medicare. The $716 billion in savings his opponents decry today extended the life of the program by nearly a decade and are making sure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted in excessive payments to insurance companies or fraud and abuse. His opponents would end the Medicare guarantee by creating a voucher that would raise seniors' costs by thousands of dollars and bankrupt the program.

We have more work to do, more investments to make and more waste to cut. But only one candidate in this race has proven a willingness to navigate a realistic path to prosperity.

As Republicans gather in Tampa to nominate Mitt Romney, Americans can expect to hear tales of how President Obama has failed to work with their party or turn the economy around.

But an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.

The truth is that the party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve.

Pundits looking to reduce something as big as a statewide election to a single photograph have blamed the result of my 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate on my greeting of President Obama. I didn't stand with our president because of what it could mean politically; I did it because uniting to recover from the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes was more important than party affiliation. I stood with our nation's leader because it was right for my state.

President Obama has a strong record of doing what is best for America and Florida, and he built it by spending more time worrying about what his decisions would mean for the people than for his political fortunes. That's what makes him the right leader for our times, and that's why I'm proud to stand with him today.

Charlie Crist is the former Republican governor of Florida and previously was elected as a state senator, education commissioner and attorney general. He currently is registered as no party affiliation. Crist wrote this column exclusively for the Tampa Bay Times.

I remember the flack he got for standing next to Obama. Literally for standing beside our president the right was upset with him. That tells you a lot of what you need to know. An event like that made Crist's eyes open to the idea that perhaps his own party isn't doing what is best for America once they don't get their way.

[BroncoLifer]

Originally Posted by GreasyQtip

I can only hope more people come out and express their views rather than being scared of the party who refuses to work with anyone who doesn't share their view.

Oops. After reading this sentence, I thought this was a video from a pro-life Democrat. My bad.

[Requiem]

Polls are damn near a statistical tie in Florida. Crist is still popular there. Him campaigning for Obama will certainly help him.

[TonyR]

From conservative leaning Kathleen Parker:


There is something wrong with the Republican Party, the survival of which demands more than a few moments of self-examination and reflection. I wouldn’t use the word "stupid," though it is tempting. Suicidal seems more apt. The GOP, through its platform, its purity tests, pledges, and its emphasis on social issues that divide rather than unite, has shot itself in the foot, eaten said foot, and still managed to stampede to the edge of the precipice. Is extinction in its DNA?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...can-party.html

[Rigs11]

Worry not righties! The GOP has a master plan for their convention.bash Obama all week long.

[Jetmeck]

even former hard nose republicans see the light..............most of these ass clowns know what their doing is wrong. they get in these rigid positions and think that moving away from them is an admission of their mistakes.

[DenverBrit]

Perfectly described.

The GOP, through its platform, its purity tests, pledges, and its emphasis on social issues that divide rather than unite,

They really ought to change the party's name, it no longer resembles the GOP.

[Play2win]

Originally Posted by DenverBrit

Perfectly described.



They really ought to change the party's name, it no longer resembles the GOP.

The Wedgies.

[BroncoBeavis]

Charlie Crist is an exclusive member of the Charlie Crist party. He'll say or do whatever it takes on either and/or both sides of each and every issue in order to give himself a better chance of getting elected.

[TonyR]

[I]t seems to me that conservative intellectuals have become so fossilized as a class because they responded to the two devastating shocks to the Standard Conservative Model by essentially doubling down on ideology. Just say the same old things, but louder and more insistently, and rely on tribalist instincts and hive-mindedness to marginalize dissenters, and that will carry the day. That, and the fact that liberalism hasn’t come up with a dynamic and compelling vision either for the post-Iraq, post-crash world — that is, a post-1980 world in which assumptions generally shared by both parties about American foreign policy and globalized capitalism have proven inadequate to the world as it is.

http://www.theamericanconservative.c...intellectuals/

[ghwk]

Originally Posted by BroncoBeavis

Charlie Crist is an exclusive member of the Charlie Crist party. He'll say or do whatever it takes on either and/or both sides of each and every issue in order to give himself a better chance of getting elected.

Wait you meant Mitt Romney didn't you? You described him perfectly.

[BroncoBeavis]

Originally Posted by ghwk

Wait you meant Mitt Romney didn't you? You described him perfectly.

Partly. Though in a less ballsy sense than Charlie.

[Mecklomaniac]

Crist checksout the beaches in Florida.

Requiem
Polls are damn near a statistical tie in Florida. Crist is still popular there. Him campaigning for Obama will certainly help him

He is so popular that he only got 29% of the vote last time he ran for state wide office. With most of his support coming from Dems.



In other news former Obama 2008 campaign co-chair, Former Dem rising star, and the man who seconded the Obama nomination at 2008 DNC, Artur Davis is now campaigning for Romney.
cnn political ticker

[TonyR]

Originally Posted by Mecklomaniac

In other news former Obama 2008 campaign co-chair, Former Dem rising star, and the man who seconded the Obama nomination at 2008 DNC, Artur Davis is now campaigning for Romney.

^ Wow. Makes one wonder what Obama, or someone in the Obama admin, did to p*ss this guy off!

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Mecklomaniac

Crist checksout the beaches in Florida looking for signs of Katrina




He is so popular that he only got 29% of the vote last time he ran for state wide office. With most of his support coming from Dems.



In other news former Obama 2008 campaign co-chair, Former Dem rising star, and the man who seconded the Obama nomination at 2008 DNC, Artur Davis is now campaigning for Romney.
cnn political ticker

I hope you are smart enough to realize that Crist ran as in independent against Rubio (R) and Meek (D). Him getting 30% (~ 29.7) in a three-way race is actually quite impressive, especially in Florida.

[Mecklomaniac]

Originally Posted by Requiem

I hope you are smart enough to realize that Crist ran as in independent against Rubio (R) and Meek (D). Him getting 30% (~ 29.7) in a three-way race is actually quite impressive, especially in Florida.

lol.... really.... Rubio had 49%.... How much influence with Florida repubs does Crist have.... Do you think that Florida is more than 49% republican?

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Mecklomaniac

lol.... really.... Rubio had 49%.... How much influence with Florida repubs does Crist have.... Do you think that Florida is more than 49% republican?

Considering the 2010 election was to fill a vacated (R) seat: A good amount, based on exit polls from the 2010 rate, around 12% of their electorate which constitutes ~ 36% of registered voters in the state. What's more impressive is Crist winning Democratic regions of the state. Based off those statistics, just off the Republicans alone, it would put him around ~ 20,000 votes. His path to victory as a Republican candidate for governor was much different, an exact map flip by county.

Considering higher turnout (almost double) for voters in Presidential Election years, and the number of Independents who like Crist, it will definitely help out Obama, especially in counties where Crist was popular as governor and still received a good amount of votes in as an Independent Senate candidate. Factor in that, along with the # of independent voters (28% of Florida's electorate, where Crist was popular) and you have a solid electoral chunk. I don't think ~ 100,000 vote estmiate is out of line given the demographic he brings in. McCain did incredibly well in a lot of areas where Crist has pull when he endorsed him in 2008.

In short, it's not a bad endorsement for Obama. It should help his numbers. Florida was a close one last time around. The fact that you tried to down-play Crist's endorsement by bringing up a ~ 30% vote count in a three-way election just displayed how short-sighted you are.