Crist's Machiavellian plan...

...to push the Democrats to count the 1/29 primary is to help Hillary Clinton, which in turn helps his pal John McCain. So suggests the New York Times:

"...Many Republicans think Mr. McCain could beat Mrs. Clinton in Florida, which might explain Mr. Crist’s push to get the Democratic delegates seated. Meanwhile, helping to prolong the Democratic battle over delegates — instead of advocating that they simply not be counted, as the current rules require — could be the governor’s way of making trouble for the Democrats on behalf of Mr. McCain."

Comments

[terminator]

the NY Times must not know much about Charlie Crist.
Chuck isn't that "forward" thinking.
He's just the kind of guy who happens to fall into a bucket of crap and comes out smelling like a rose!
They should examine his record on property tax and property insurance reform if they think he's so Machiavellian. End of story for the poor Floridians who have had to deal with the Chuck Crist Governorship.
And the budget keeps going down while Chuck says "all is well".

Nothing new - people have been speculating along those lines for weeks now. The only "news" is that that the idea may originated with Charlie Crist. Not likely. It will be interesting to see if this backfires on the GOP. People are getting pretty fed up with being manipulated by the Republicans. And it makes them look pretty desperate.

[UF Grad Student]

Charlie's VP meter numbers just shot up 10 points. Go Charlie!

Cristi always wins, despite his own buffoonish efforts! I say he gets at least Attorney General in McAmnesty's administration.

termie, you can't still be mad that Gallagher lost.

[ds]

And yet again, terminator is the only one with a bit of sense on here. Our saving grace will be if McCain is dumb enough to choose Charlie for VP and then the media will begin to pick him apart. Florida doesn't have the guts but the national media isn't quite as forgiving....

11:45: If McCain picks CC and the media tears him apart, we still have Crist as governor. Remember, his buddies passed a law last year allowing sitting governors to keep their office while they run for national office?

[terminator]

11:45
thanks for some seasoned analysis

11:54
yeah but if Crist does go through a national vetting and he and McCain lose, he'll return to Florida as a very badly damaged politician without any ability to further his agenda which so far has only involved shameless self promotion.
He would be exposed to the people for the fake he really is.

UF Grad student:
how's poly sci 101 with Mikey Haridopolous coming along?
Too bad the Gators are sitting out the NCAA tournament!

Charlie Crist's leadership reminds me of the Bear Stearns management team. Cristi's equity correction will be here in due time.

I'm getting worried.

Did terminator actually predict that CC wouldn't get selected by McCain and then they would lose the Presidential election together? If he did, I am worried that he will be dead wrong like everything else that he has predicted over the last year and a half.

Tell us again how Marco is going to stand up to the Senate and pass a real tax reform package . . . it never gets old.

[ds]

11:45 - terminator states it correctly. Yes, the idiot would come back to his office. But maybe all of you out there - like UF Student and the 12:30 poster - would see the light and believe that he is not what he has so many convinced that he is. His time is coming and his fall from grace will be the rock dropping that no one heard with respect to insurance and taxes! And I for one, can't wait!

[ds]

Sorry - I meant 11:54 - not myself at 11:45!!! Long day!

If everyone hasn't seen the light on Cristi by now, they never will. Geez, how many offices has he held: Senator, Education Commissioner, Attorney General and now Governor?

The only people less idealistic about our national democracy than politicians are the news media types who are supposed to be a check on the politicians--reporters, commentators and pundits.

Instead of writing about something constructive that informed voters could use to drain the cesspool that politicians and news types spend their days swimming in, the news types fill their pages with idle speculations about which evil motive is deep in somebody else's heart.

It doesn't matter if their speculations are right or wrong. Printed speculations on subjective states of mind do no good whatsoever. Since, they can't be proved or disproved, they do only two things-- encourage yet more cynicism around the system and fill the print hole. Neither is inherently good.

Of course, with this brand of journalism the pundit can stand tall among his fellows and say, "Look how clever I am!" Heck, I'll bet they give awards to each other for such punditry.

It is all wasted energy--wasted intelligence and talent. It is almost nothing except lost opportunity to do something worthwhile with time and space.

Consider the primary mess: The press sees the whole vote cancellation thing as just part of the horse race, nothing particularly out of the ordinary and only important today for how it affects the opportunities of the candidates tomorrow.

The press speculates not at all about the ramifications for how a representative democracy functions when the politician get to say whose votes count and whose won't. Now, politicians and pundits are saying the way to fix the vote cancellation is to "allow" the votes but to count them only as the politicians agree.

Say what?

Reporters and commentators no longer even see the process from a civic perspective. It is all drama and entertainment to them. Entertainment is the function protected by the 1st Amendment these days.

Reporters and editors are just passive observers who plumb happenings for dramatic conflict to titillate readers. If there is no such conflict available, they write a piece speculating on somebody's evil motives and thereby manufacture conflict.

Where is an attempt to penetrate to the meaning of events?

When there is such an attempt, it is usually feeble: the resources tapped are limited to the players; a mechanical balancing trundles spin and counter spin into meaninglessness. With this as the alternative, assertion of dark motive becomes not such an obviously useless use of human intellect.

There may be scholars around who see occurrences from broader and/or historical perspectives, but the press won't go that way because it is hard to write it up in the punchy, grabbing modern journalistic style. Print, after all, competes with broadcast.

The more studied and responsible the scholarship is, the less likely it is to be fit for modern journalism.

Instead, the press grows ever darker in their outlook, amusing one another with vain and evil speculations about the actors' subjective states of mind.

Eddie Murphy said, "BE SOMEBODY!" And we are! We are being somebody! Is this who we want to be?

12:53: What's the point of posting such long screeds? Do you think anyone has the time to read that crap? Oh, I forgot that 75% of the people on here are staffers and have the time to waste.

[ds]

12:53 - While I would definitely agree with you that it is amazing that the man has managed to fool so many for such a long time, I believe this governorship will be his down fall. This office is by far the one that will bring the most attention to him - add to that the scrutiny that will begin on a national level and his days of skirting through will be over. Just like in a normal workplace environment, there are always those people that one wonders how in the world they manage to do it... It eventually catches up to everyone. And if Charlie keeps opening his mouth and speaking to those interviewers that are broadcasting nationally, it may happen even quicker....

[terminator]

12:30
guess you weren't at the TBRC meeting were you buddy?
you just got *itch slapped by Marco and the terminator!
time to get you head out of your rear-end there *ss wipe!
tax relief is on the way and it isn't the weak-*ss amendment one you and your buddy Charlie pushed on unsuspecting Floridians.

Like the Democrats need any assistance with the disaster they created!! Terminator, please explain your issues with the governor. You just sound like a loser Gallagher supporter. Crist cut the budget. Vetoed nearly half a billion more. He has been out front on legislation and a constitutional amendment forcing cities and counties to cut their taxes. Your guy Gallagher supported tax increases and created Citizens' Insurance. Maybe that was before he found God?

01:58 - Believe me, there are plenty of others out there that have issues with Charlie from the Chocolate Factory. You forgot to include Charlie's fantastic budgeting - you know, including phantom funds from gambling to balance a budget and including projected funds from something currently tied up in legal, and oh yeah, an increase in taxes at the local effort to eliminate the whopping $240 he touted as enough to make a difference! If you're going to tout his accomplishments, make sure you include all of them! hahahahahahahahahhaha

[The Real UF Student]

When was the last time FSU went to the tournament Terminator? Then tell me the last time FSU won the NCAA BB tournament. My day always gets better with your predictions, cause I don't think I've ever seen you make a correct prediction.

Shocker. A UF fan who is overly sensitive....

NY Times & NBC/MSNBC are the 2 worst source for news. A recent non-partisan study showed NBC/MSNBC as totally biased in it's reporting. The NY Times got slammed by literally everybody for it's McCain alleged affair articles.

2 garbage news organizations that is sliding in readers & viewers

1:01 PM

Maybe 12:53 doesn't think in quips, sound bites, slogans and snippy insults?

Clearly, you're not ready for more.

Is it only worthwhile if a fifth grader can get it with a glance-over?