Avlon on Crist's Political Opportunism
My friend John Avlon has a piece in the Daily Beast on Charlie Crist.
As an independent and a centrist, I should be a textbook supporter of Charlie Crist’s newly announced independent candidacy for U.S. Senate.
But I’m not—because Charlie Crist confirms the worst stereotypes of a centrist. Instead of being principled in his differences with his party, he is opportunistic.
Most independents and centrists feel politically homeless in our polarized two-party system because they are too fiscally conservative for Democrats but too socially liberal for Republicans. It is a principled position that refuses to conform to the go-along/get-along ideological straitjacket imposed by the special interests in both parties. But Charlie Crist does not represent this courageous tradition with any consistency—instead it is just a pose he is adopting for short-term political gain.
A lot of us who supported Rudy Giuliani in 2008 also remember Charlie Crist's auctioning his support to the highest bidder in the ‘08 primaries, first leading Giuliani to believe that he'd endorse Rudy’s candidacy, then switching to McCain when that looked a more promising route to the vice presidency.