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Crist Didn't Do Himself Any Party Favors

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By Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

When one of the biggest political albatrosses around Charlie Crist's neck is the perception he's a bigger empty suit than Gen. Halftrack, you would think the governor would take great pains to avoid making Dan Quayle look like a Renaissance scholar by comparison.

Instead, there was the governor of Florida the other night, appearing before the annual Flag Day Dinner, an event put on by California's Orange County Republicans, deftly managing in the space of a mere nine minutes to come off as Barney Fife - with a tan.

Clearly Crist wasn't invited to be the keynote speaker because of his ability to regale crowds with tales of his days as a backup quarterback for Wake Forest University.

Rather, he was beckoned to Orange County because he is one of John McCain's potential vice presidential running mates.

Presidential Tim-ber-r-r-r!

It's probably fair to say that the Orange County Republicans, a group so conservative they make the Heritage Foundation look like the Weather Underground, are not exactly known for their sense of whimsy.

And Crist had to know that at least until McCain announces his running-mate decision, his every utterance, every public gesture, will be measured against some ill-defined concept of heartbeat-away presidential timber.

This could have been a golden opportunity for Crist, who at least looks presidential, to deliver some thoughtful remarks on the economy, or maybe wax eloquent about the McCain campaign, or maybe even remark on tax cuts, a subject surely near and dear to the heart of his audience.

Instead, according to published accounts of his appearance, the congenitally cheerful Gov. Mr. Bluebird On My Shoulder displayed a cluelessness about a Republican deity, noting wrongly that Ronald Reagan hailed from "right here in Orange County."

Isn't it an article of faith for all Republicans to know that the Gipper was born on Feb. 6, 1911, in - Tampico, Ill.?

In A Drill Pickle

Then, revealing a stunning ignorance of California politics, Crist went on to praise the politically moderate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is regarded as something of an apostate in such staunch conservative Republican circles as Orange County.

To be sure, if someone like Gen. David Petraeus or Colin Powell had committed similar gaffes, the whole thing would have been dismissed as simply a minor misstatement.

But when you are already regarded as an intellectual lightweight, such missteps - fairly or not - carry far greater political consequences.

It didn't help that in the same week Crist was stepping on his shtick in Orange County, he also was being perceived as McCain's toady for so blithely abandoning his long-held opposition to oil drilling off Florida's coast the minute the GOP presidential candidate endorsed the idea.

You have to wonder whether, if McCain had supported Americans wearing their underwear on their heads, Crist would have shown up in Orange County with a pair of Fruit-of-the-Loom boxers hanging down around his ears.

It's one thing to be shot in the foot as ill-informed, ill-prepared and ill-suited to be vice president. It's quite another pull the trigger yourself.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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