Charlie Crist: the DNC speaker from Florida who isn't a D. Yet.

The biggest Florida speaker at the Democratic National Convention wasn’t a Democrat.

Yet.

After former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s speech Thursday night, it’s only a matter of time before he officially joins the party’s ranks in a slow march to running for governor in two years.

Crist’s high-profile role pained many Florida delegates, but it furthered President Obama’s message – that the Republican  Party is too extreme.

“As a former lifelong Republican, it pains me to tell you that today's Republicans—and their standard-bearers, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan—just aren't up to the task,” Crist said. “They're beholden to “my way or the highway” bullies, indebted to billionaires who bankroll ads and allergic to the very idea of compromise.”

Crist’s speech was as much a condemnation of today’s Republican Party as it was an explanation of why he’s officially moving toward the Democratic Party and away from the conservative positions he once espoused.

Republicans and many Democrats alike won’t let Crist forget he campaigned for years as a pro-life, anti-gay marriage, gun-touting “Reagan Republican” and “Jeb Bush Republican.” In 2010, in his unsuccessful Senate bid, he bashed Obama’s agenda and ran as a “true conservative.”

“Is he here, and in this for his principles?” asked Democratic delegate Bob Hartnett of Orlando. “I’ve got a long time to think about that. But there are many others in this party qualified to lead and be onstage representing our people.”

Miami-Dade commissioners postpone vote on pre-paid absentee postage

A host of proposed reforms to Miami-Dade’s much-maligned absentee ballot system got a lukewarm reception at County Hall on Thursday, with commissioners postponing votes on substantive measures while voting to implement a pair of mostly symbolic gestures.

Commissioner Barbara Jordan used a procedural maneuver to block a vote on whether the county should provide pre-paid postage envelopes for voters who request absentee ballots.

Jordan’s move delayed a vote on the proposal sponsored by Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, and on a similar proposal by the town of Miami Lakes, which had asked the county to offer the pre-paid envelopers to its voters.

But after the meeting, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said if commissioners shelve the Bovo plan permanently, he will look for a way to get it done anyway.

Commissioners unanimously passed resolutions urging state lawmakers to keep secret the names of those requesting absentee ballots and to require voters to provide a reason for requesting an absentee ballot. They also signed off on a measure supporting a task force created by the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office to look into absentee-ballot fraud, which brought a chuckle from Chairman Joe Martinez.

“They’re not going to do a damn thing,” said Martinez, who is contesting the Aug. 14 mayoral election he lost to Gimenez.

More here.

Wasserman Schultz focuses on health care, her own breast cancer battle, in DNC speech

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic National Committee, whose duties include opening the Democratic convention on Tuesday, had a short speaking slot early Thursday evening. It's been a rocky convention for Wasserman Schultz, who was dogged by squabbling within the Obama campaign that's she too partisan of a spokesperson for the president, and who got caught up in the debate over whether the party's platform should assert Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state.

Her speech focuses on her battle with breast cancer and her belief in affordable health care. "No family
should go broke just because a mom gets sick," she said. "So when President Obama passed healthcare
reform, it was personal!" In it, she exhorts fellow Democrats to work as hard as they can to re-elect President Barack Obama.

"So, when you feel too drained to register one more voter, too tired to make one more phone call or too exhausted to knock on one more door, dig just a little bit deeper," she said. "Work just a little bit harder. And don't get weary!"

Was Charlie Crist "pro-life, pro-gun and vehemently anti-tax"? Yep -- mostly

After former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed President Barack Obama and secured a speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention, Republicans pulled out the Crist files to highlight how much the Republican-turned-independent Crist had changed in just four years.

George LeMieux, a Republican and a former Crist chief of staff, wrote a biting op-ed about Crist’s former stances.

"He never met a tax increase he liked. ... The Charlie Crist I knew idolized Ronald Reagan and embraced Reagan's view of limited government. He was pro-life, pro-gun and vehemently anti-tax. He believed big government was the enemy of success, and that when government taxed it took ‘your money.’"

In this PolitiFact item we will explore whether Crist was "pro-life, pro-gun and vehemently anti-tax."

First, we will note what Crist said of himself in February 2010: "I am pro-life, I’m pro-gun, I’m pro-family and I’m anti-tax. And I always have been." He made those claims at a Christian Family Coalition breakfast while running for U.S. Senate as a Republican. He would ditch the GOP label for no-party about two months later as he was struggling in his primary bid against Marco Rubio.

Florida Dems' dilemma: Sink with the rank-and-file, Crist with the money men

An image that speaks volumes about the potential looming Democratic gubernatorial primary between Alex Sink and Charlie Crist: Last night Sink and hubbie Bill McBride sat in the arena with Florida delegates watching the speakers.

Crist, meanwhile, was shmoozing in the luxury suites with the Democratic big wigs. We hear he also hung out at the Ritz for awhile with Kirk Wager, Florida Finance Chairman of the Crist campaign (who says he merely bumped into him at the bar, though "I do like him). Today CNN's Peter Hamby chatted with the former Republican as he left a DNC national finance committee meeting.

The former governor has steered clear of the delegates and party activists in Charlotte. Most of them show little enthusiasm for Crist, who generally show little enthusiasm for his running for governor, let alone getting a speaking gig on the final night of the convention. No, the enthusiasm for Crist mostly comes from the Obama campaign.

Crist's speech to DNC is set for 8 p.m. hour

Love him. Hate him. But tune in during the 8 O'clock hour of the DNC to see Charlie Crist deliver his speech.

Crist comes between Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and U.S. Sen. John Kerry. Here's the schedule

-- Alex Leary

Video lookback: Charlie Crist's complicated relationship with President Obama, the stimulus and the GOP

Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist takes the stage tonight at the Democratic National Convention where he'll be showcased as a person whose party left him as it lurched to the "extreme" right.

It's true that Crist tried to govern from the center, however he only left the party when he faced the prospect of losing a Republican GOP Senate race against Marco Rubio. He then went on to lose in the general election in 2010.

The killer: Crist's support for the stimulus. Not only did the bailout prove unpopular, Crist had an inconsistent relationship with it and with Obama. Crist sometimes championed the stimulus, other times he bashed it. Sometimes it depended on the week, or which reporter he spoke with.

Below is a video of Crist explaining his waffling over the stimulus and a stimulus-bashing ad he later produced that was today unearthed by the Republican Party of Florida, which boosted Crist and is now tearing him down. Also below are two videos of the day before he left the GOP, when he refused to say he was doing so.

 

 

 

Crist's last day as a Republican, Pt 1

 

 

 

 

Crist's last days as a Republican, Pt 2

Former Rick Scott spox featured in new RNC 'break-up' ad as Obama fan

Former campaign spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott, Bettina Inclan, has the starring role in this new Republican National Committee television ad as she attempts to portray a disaffected supporter of President Obama. Inclan, who is now the director of Hispanic Outreach for the RNC, tells the cardboard cutout of the president in a sultry voice, "Listen, this just isn't working."

An RNC spokesman told Talking Points Memo that although Inclan is not a Democrat, nor is she a real former Obama supporter, the portrayal is not dishonest. “It’s a lighthearted ad to show how millions of Americans feel about President Obama — he’s not the person we thought he was and it’s time to break up with him,'' the spokesman said. "But let’s be clear, it is an ad.”

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Bill Clinton, political magician

It’s morning again in Charlotte. President Obama plans to address the nation tonight.

But everyone’s thinking about the last Democratic president and what he said and how he said it last night.

Calling Bill Clinton’s speech masterful would be an understatement. It was a performance. It was a magic act, mesmerizing and magnetic. Republicans, who wrapped up their convention last week in Tampa, grudgingly admitted there has been no parallel speech this political season.

It might have been the best nominating speech at a political convention in modern times.

Replete with catchy one-liners and rhetorical tricks worthy of a skilled trial lawyer, this is the type of speech Abraham Lincoln might have given. Like Lincoln, Clinton was a lawyer and he made his speech an address to the jury of the American people. It was a case for Obama. And he made the case better for his client than his client probably will tonight.

Clinton argued and persuaded. He took up straw-man Republican positions. He knocked them down. He verbally indicted the GOP.

“You see, we believe that ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’ It is,” Clinton said.

“So who’s right? Well, since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats, 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private sector jobs,” he said.

The crowd roared. Again. And Again.

Did Clinton B.S.? Probably. They fool people with their own senses. But this speech wasn’t simple, typical political manure. It was fertilizer for an Obama campaign that needs to rise above the mire of its picayune and petty fights with Mitt Romney’s campaign.