Yeah, while McCain was here in Tampa Crist had a "previous engagement" at Disney World.  

I think Crist realizes all too well that McCain is a goner, and why get yourself emblazoned with that?  Besides, Crist has governed and campaigned as a moderate, to the chagrin of most of the conservative Republican braintrust in this state, which was used to unapologetic right-winger Jeb Bush.  I think Crist realizes that the country and our state are shifting rapidly to the left, and for him to see a second term as governor he must stay in the middle and at times veer left.  

When Republicans do something that looks good, I ask, how could this be self-serving?

Maybe Crist is doing the right thing b/c it's the right thing. Maybe he's doing it to snub McCain. Maybe he's convinced Obama is going to win and the Dems are gonna dominate Washington so he wants to be able to call in a favor.

Or maybe...

What if the GOP is planning (or doing) something particularly sinister or illegal to disenfranchise Democrats in Florida?

What if Crist knows about it? What if Crist expects that Florida Republicans are going to be prosecuted for this scheme if Obama is elected? What if Crist's involvement is in the gray zone? He knows about it and is at least tacitly allowing it?

Doing something high profile to assist Dem voters could be used by his PR people and defense attorneys to cast reasonable doubt on his involvement.

Another scenario: what if the GOP has figured a way to throw out early votes selectively? They'd want more Dems to vote early.

IMHO.

Flushing out folks like Michelle Bachman, maybe Saxby Chambliss could help the sane ones in the long run.

Think of it as a forest fire, we burn out the old growth, and the new timber comes in...

It took a superb effort (and the job is not done yet) for the Obama team to come this far, considering the entrenched power of the Republican poltical machine.

And, they are going to need every bit of that discipline and structure, given the nightmare they are walking into.

One more thing, it's clear the Republicans are exhausted, they are gasping for breath, spent, they need to regroup and recharge. The desperately need fresh blood, new ideas, they need to rethink this, cause we are seeing the end of a generation, to a large extent, even IF he doesn't flip NC or GA, Obama is going to effectively end the Southern Strategy.

The Republicans are wedded to an idea that is almost 5 decades old and it is showing every bit of that age?

Is that the team you want walking into this nightmare?

Folks, even those crazies walking out of the Palin rallies need us to win it for them.

McCain and a spent bankrupt Republican party has no prayer of getting us out of the ditch, and Barack will have to be perhaps the best President of my lifetime to do it anyway?

Here's hoping and praying...

Well if I HAVE to choose a Republican, I think I might like a smart one for a change?

Better him (from what I know) then Palin taking over the party...

But we can't get fooled.

This is the same Charlie whose solution to the economic issues facing Florida is t accelerate a couple of projects and hold a press conference. Laughable compared to the $9 billion he's pulled out of the economy thanks to budget cuts and billion more he will pull out next year.

Where was he last week, when early voting started? Dan Gelber warned about this years ago and Charlie had plenty of time to fix this, but didn't. He waited until now to do it in a way that is getting him sued by a bunch of elections officials and will land the decision in court, when he could have just fixed it in 2007?

Because he is more concerned about news stories about voting problems in Florida again than he is about the actual issues. Yes, he gets some goodwill, but lets not give him too much credit.

He is Governor, and too much of what he does is responsive and too little too late. Because he is always looking out for Number 1 and not Floridians -- unless like today they happen to cross paths.

Or maybe not?

In the battleground state of Florida, for example, Democrats make up 45 percent of the early vote, against 40 percent for the Republicans.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20081 028/CAPITOLNEWS/810280328

TALLAHASSEE - With the presidential election still a week out, nearly one-fifth of Florida's electorate has already cast ballots. And Florida Democrats are claiming they've got an edge over Republicans among the more than 2.3 million voters who have already cast ballots.

The state Democratic Party said Tuesday that 53 percent of the nearly 1.2 million early voters were Democrats compared to 30 percent who were Republicans.

Of the 1.1 million absentee ballots returned so far, Republicans have a 49 percent to 35 percent advantage over Democrats, the party said. That adds up to give Democrats an overall 44-39 percent edge in ballots cast.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/poli tics/orl-early-voting-ballots-102808,0,7 282763.story

So, absentees, Repbulicans seem to have a lead?

I'm not so sure in early voting that the Repubs are leading?

Have to check where the LA times got their numbers....

The LA Times is most certainly wrong with their numbers.  Must have been from a week ago when Republicans had a head start due to the larger abesentee ballots request.  

Yeah, this sort of oversensitivity (or PC-ness) is one thing people don't like about Liberals.

No one means any offense.  I don't even see by any stretch of the imagination how you can read any ill will into it in the context of this post.

Let's keep our eyes on the prize.