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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

For the good of the GOP, will Charlie Crist drop out?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 17th, 2009 at 11:50 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The first survey in the Florida Senate race was 54-8 in Charlie Crist’s favor. When Rubio broke into the mid-teens, Charlie Crist’s campaign said that for the good of the GOP, Rubio needed to withdraw.

The NRSC endorsed campaign of Charlie Crist said Rubio would lose to Democrat Kendrick Meeks. Crist said that Rubio staying in the race would cause money to be spent unnecessarily in the GOP primary.

John Cornyn and the NRSC said they were endorsing Charlie Crist because they did not want to have to spend a bunch of time and effort in Florida and . . . wait for it . . . Rubio could not win.

But wait.

The Rasmussen poll shows the race now tied. I suspect we will soon see other polls showing, if not a tie, the Crist lead down from 40 points to single digits, if not showing Rubio in the lead.

What’s more, polling now shows Rubio performing better against Kendrick Meeks than Charlie Crist.

For the good of the GOP, will the NRSC call on Charlie Crist to get out of the race? Will the Florida GOP call on Charlie Crist to get out of the race?

You heard it hear first: Charlie Crist will drop out.

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COMMENTS

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  • IJB
  • Composer_Man

    Come on now . . . Charlie Crist ain’t droppin’ out! He’s just getting started.

    Read the discussions over at The Corner on NRO. Nobody who knows the situation well thinks that will happen, including Rubio himself.

    I’d love it if you were right, but since when has that man ever done the noble and upright thing?

  • Third Street

    His chances of winning are still at least 50/50, and Crist doesn’t strike me as the kind of pol who would choose the good of the GOP over personal advancement.

  • RedBeard
  • stixxxnstones

    …is the personal, ringing endorsement of Tim Tebow himself. And even that might not work :D

    Big Mo’, baby. Can you FEEL the Mo’mentum :D

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    I’m shocked to hear that. No really. No sarcasm intended whatsoever…

  • Aaron Gardner
  • conservativemusician

    In his mind, he is owed a bunch of favors for getting McCain as the nominee, so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon, especially since we are still a year out from the elections. Wouldn’t surprise me to see Crist eventually pull out all the stops with negative ads against Rubio by Spring 2010.

  • fsured

    Crist has almost a full year to poke holes in the Rubio sail and will have $10-$15 million to do so, far more than Rubio will have on hand. Marco needs to stay on message and keep the focus on Charlie and not himself. I just hope Marco’s ego doesnt get in the way.

  • Darin_H

    Just to say it again.

  • Third Street

    Lately we’ve been getting some hard lessons in who “can’t win”, both in primaries and general elections. In December 2007 the McCain presidential campaign was widely regarded as a joke. (Of course, Crist himself helped turn that around…)

  • Scope

    after all those NRSC dollars wasted.

  • Scope

    after all those NRSC dollars wasted.

  • The_Gadfly

    If Crist were smart he’d drop out over the holidays when the news would get lost and he could maintain “viability” for a future campaign. But his campaign pooh-poohed the results of the Rasmussen poll when it was announced, so he’s in it for the long haul.

    The real question here is: Is there anybody in the NRSC who knows it is time to make the long walk up to the White House, I mean down to Florida to explain to Mr. Crist that for the good of the party he has to resign from the campaign? And that failure to do so will mean the GOP aligns itself behind Rubio because they can’t afford to lose Florida in the 2010 election.

  • Aaron Gardner
  • Third Street
  • izoneguy

    John McCain: ‘I still think Charlie will win’

    http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2009/12/john-mccain-i-still-think-charlie-will-win.html

    WE Need to get Sarah over to Florida and help Marco!!!!

    Palin vs. McCain – Grudge Match 2010

  • AngryMatt

    No chance Crist drops out of this race. He decided to make his move to D.C. now instead of cruising to re-election and then possibly taking on Bill Nelson. Good plan because of the overall environment, bad news for him that Rubio got in the race early too and has been out-hustling him across the state.

    Crist is a consummate politician and will do whatever it takes to win. I don’t know if it means following Kos’s strategy of running as an indy or even a Dem, but I do know it does mean he’s going to get very nasty very quickly here in Florida.

    Strangely enough, Rubio is not getting stronger because of mainstream press reports or coverage of the race. There’s almost none to speak of in the local media, though Crist is getting hit for his connection to the billionaire Ponzi schemer that was his primary fundraiser. Besides that, there’s been nothing so I think the conservative grassroots is behind Rubio’s rise… the high unemployment rate and Crist’s falling job approval is helping some as well.

    But don’t count on Crist sacrificing himself for the good of the party or even sacrificing his current aspirations for his future ones. The only way he gets out is if he figures he will DEFINITELY lose, DEFINITELY lose credibility and that his current campaign will torpedo any chance he has at going to the fallback option of running against Nelson in 2012.

  • Aaron Gardner

    In the early stages of the Rubio campaign, Crist and his associates said floated the meme that Rubio was unelectable, too conservative even. Crist himself cited polls showing his clear defeat of Rubio and called for Rubio to drop from the race. Recently Crist has tried to defame Rubio and challenge his conservative credential which he once tried to make an albatross around Rubio’s neck.

    Now, despite all the slimeball tactics and NRSC endorsements, Rubio is on pace to clean Crist’s clock. RedState has now moved into the schadenfreude phase of the primary, in which we relentlessly mock Crist while he gets his comeuppance.

    So, for the good of the party, Crist should drop out. He is unelectable and can’t beat Meeks.

    That is all.

  • Third Street

    …that Crist is far from finished, could still easily win the primary, and therefore it is much too early for schadenfreude.

  • Darin_H

  • Aaron Gardner

    Crist has been trending downward as the primary has progressed. The possibility of him breaking this trend is decreasing exponentially as long as he continues to campaign the way he is. And since he is too incompetent and arrogant to understand that he has made himself a hypocrite on multiple occasions, I think this is a great time to engage in a bit of schadenfreude.

    Yo Charlie…You are unelectable!

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    He is dead candidate walking.

    Rubio is an excellent and rising star.

    What Crist failed to grasp is simply this 70-80% OF GOP PRIMARY VOTERS WILL BE VOTING FOR THE MOST CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE THEY CAN FIND.

    Good luck hanging on to that slice of the 20-30% who want the squish… McCain only won in 2008 because the conservative voters were split and flummoxed by imperfect choices.

    Florida primary voters in 2010 will not have that difficulty. the CLEAR and WINNING choice is Rubio.

    This same dynamic – get on the on ‘conservative’ track to win – is why Perry will beat KBH in Tx Gov primary. It’s why Fiorina will NOT be the nominee, Chuck DeVore will be in Senate race in Cali…

    You will ALSO see MANY upsets akin to the Hoffman over Dede boomlet … McCain and Bennett of Utah might even fall. And Rand Paul has a good chance to beat the establishmentarian in the race in KY.

    It’s all of a piece with the news that “Tea Party” as a brand actually beats “Republican”. The RINO brand is a DEAD BRAND. It’s the worst most useless and self-defeating brand in the political arena today. Squish Republicans will get squished.

    For all those reasons, Crist is toast.

  • conservativemusician

    Of which he is sorely lacking as are most politiciansx, for that matter. Regarding your 2nd paragraph about someone making the trip down to FL to tell Crist he will lose and that he should get out “for the good of the party”, wouldn’t it just be delicious if McCain was tapped as the messenger of doom. Hey, I can dream :-)

  • Third Street

    ’08 cured me of ever again prematurely dancing on the grave of any candidacy. It isn’t even out of the realm of possibility that Kendrick Meek could end up the next U.S. Senator from Florida, though it certainly doesn’t seem very likely, no matter who the Republican is.

  • http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb

    It just *might* get the attention of the party leadership. Maybe.

  • antisocial

    You know why? Because lot of us are investing in his success. Looks like it is time for a new dose of campaign stimulus :-)

    We see two trends. Crist going down and Rubio going up.

    If Crist wants to be clobbered in the primaries he will continue.

  • Mayhem

    is if he has a viable alternative. What other office is he gonna run for? He’s hurt his chances for Gov, and given the situation of his state, he might not even win reelection to that office if he tried.

  • Mayhem

    minus the BS.

  • Vladimir
  • IJB

    The deal would be that, basically, Crist announces that he is pulling out of the Senate race because it is “too distracting” to his job as governor, and endorses Rubio (who goes on to a big win, I predict).

    The under-the-table part of the deal is that Crist agrees to run against Bill Nelson in 2012, in return for full GOP support and the promise of a basically empty primary field.

    Even I’d go for that deal.

    The open question is whether Crist would take such a deal – if he wants *any* future in politics (at least, in GOP politics), he’d take that deal…

  • jeffreywturner

    Looking forward to 2012, I’d say Crist COULD beat Nelson. On the other hand Jeb WOULD beat Nelson.

    Furthermore, as a Senator, Crist would be a SLIGHT improvement over Nelson, but Jeb would be a HUGE improvement over Nelson.

  • IJB
  • mrgrgtaz

    Unfortunately if registered Republicans, are RINOs themselves, there is a problem. Don’t we need to keep “all” RINOs out of the Republican Party? Support the Patriots and forget the RINOs. It worked in other states. Why not Florida?

  • Castor

    The moment of truth for Charlie Crist will be when Marco goes up 7-8% in the polls or the big man(Jeb) sings. EITHER OR , maybe both and then he will drop out.

  • sapwolf

    Sarah will bless Marco and Crist will either drop out or be handed a truly embarrassing defeat.

    The Hurricane builds towards 2010. Keep fighting with money, volunteer time, blood, sweat and tears.

  • GenEarly

    Put your money on the table, it takes a lot of us contributing to equal the vested interests in Crist’s pockets. Check pants Republicans have only different special interests than Democrats, and none of these entrenched politicos really care about you working class serfs. So now you have a chance to really put Florida on the map, join our sister states in Texas,Idaho,Utah,etc. Take back the Rino Party, and Elect True Conservatives for State and Federal positions. Bill Young in Congress 10 needs to retire, he is not the most conservative candidate, but does get the PORK for Pinellas County. Say NO in your own backyard first! Contribute to Eric Forcade for Congress (District 10), Rubio for US Senate, & Paula Dockery for Govenor of Florida.

  • Common_Cents

    by endorsing Rubio.

    You’d think Crist would have been out front of this making sure McCain doesn’t give an endorsement!

  • eburke

    There’s no way that Rubio is polling better than Crist against Meeks because the *only* reason that the NRSC endorsed Crist was because he was the most electable candidate.

    And the NRSC is never wro….. uhhh, never mind.

  • slinkiecat

    Marco Rubio is gaining ground as he appears around the state, while Charlie Crist, the RINO, is losing just as fast.

    All Marco needs now is an endorsement by Sarah Palin to counteract the elitist RNSC’s endorsement of Gov. Crist (aka Specter with a tan).

    We in Florida deserve the best, and Marco Rubio is the best of the bunch right now.

  • edwlstr

    Unless memory doesn’t serve McCain lost. My wife, who left me for a better man (Jesus), said at the time Crist came out in support for McCain that the election was decided, we would lose. Only death prevented her from voting for Sarah. I still expected to see her there at the polls. The current avalanche of irresponsible spending and consequent deficits would not have happened under Romney, an economic wizard.

  • JTrenchard

    If we continue sending guys like Crist or L. Graham back to D.C., why should any of us wonder when conservatism fails to abide by any of our defining principles?