On the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, the former Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, has endorsed Barack Obama for president:
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.
Crist also decries the Republican Party’s move to the far right:
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.
I keep hoping that the Republican party comes to their senses. People like Crist and Jon Huntsman give me hope that it might still be possible.
2 Comments
I may be wrong, but didn’t Crist leave the Publican party a couple of years ago making him a former Republican former governor of Florida?
He is now neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but when he was governor of Florida, he was a Republican. So it is correct to say that he is the former Republican governor of Florida.
He was popular as governor, but when he ran against tea party member Marco Rubio for the Senate, he was castigated by the Republican party for once meeting with Obama and actually acting friendly toward him. My feeling was that he was pretty much forced out of the party, like so many other Republican moderates.