Comments on: The Man Who Saved The Everglades

By: dragonlady

dragonlady — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:31:14 +0000

Barker13, Crist has to govern with a 50-50 state. Despite that, he has high approval ratings in the 60s across party lines: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/15/poll-crist-approvalhighWhile I was not crazy about his stimulus support, even hard core GOP governors accepted some of the stimulus money. And I lived in FL for well over a decade. With its beautiful beaches, everglades, and coral, people there care about the environment. Most of them oppose off shore drilling, although there was some movement on this when gas prices went thru the roof. Crist is pro-gun, tough on crime, pro-death penalty, supports a culture of life and traditional family although there is evidence that he is a moderate with respect to the last two issues. He worked with state insurers to provide a variety of low cost health care plans to FL residents and has avoided the panacea of universal coverage. He has appointed more conservatives than moderates to the state court. He is generally in favor of lower taxes. He has good relations with minorities in the state even though he is against affirmative action. And he supports school choice. What is this, a GOP purity test? Crist is a moderate, not really a conservative, but I do not believe he is an Arlen Specter type. If anything, he is a center-right pragmatist, and in my opinion, somewhat of a panderer. But are we really going to purge a guy with such high approval ratings in a key battleground state out of the party?

By: barker13

barker13 — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:34:50 +0000

Re: Churl; wrote 11 minutes ago --

My thoughts exactly; thanks for saving me some typing!

Re: Joemarier; 5:03 AM --

Yep. With all due respect for Mr. DiPeso's sincere focus on environmental issues, it's Crist's support of the Porkubus bill and his opposition to increasing domestic oil production capacity that makes him... er... Schumer lite.

Re: Dragonlady; 8:58 PM --

Convince me. (*SHRUG*)

Re: Midcon; 4:54 AM --

Ya know... I could actually see myself being more likely to support "Independent" Crist than Republican Crist.

BILL

By: Churl

Churl — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:15:23 +0000

$1.75 billion for 180,000 acres.

This means a price of $9,722 per acre. For Florida swampland. No wonder the sellers were willing.

"'Swampland in Florida' refers to decades-old but still recurring real estate scams involving swamp lands misrepresented as being possible to develop, or "buildable". These scams became widely known and now also have meaning as a common figure of speech."

Thus spake Wikipedia.

By: ottovbvs

ottovbvs — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:12:44 +0000

What Di Peso doesn’t mention is that most of the support for Crist’s everglades policy came from lefty politicians and enviros and most of the oppostion came from right wing Republicans in the state. There were also a bunch of other areas where he collided with conservative notably on property insurance and tolerance of gay unions and abortion choice. In many ways he’s much closer to Obama than he is to today’s GOP mainstream.

By: joemarier

joemarier — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:03:03 +0000

I’m sorry, but nobody that I know of opposes Crist because of his Everglades policy. It’s his support of the stimulus. It’s his property insurance policies, which I perceive as as straightforward a vote-buying scheme as Palin’s. It’s his McCain endorsement in the primary, which still rankles among Romney supporters. It’s the NRSC’s getting involved this early (I don’t agree with that one)What next? Are we going to buy Arlen Specter’s line that he was kicked out because he supports cancer research?

By: midcon

midcon — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:54:13 +0000

I wish would run as an Independent. He has sufficient credibility that lack of a party affiliation would not be an impediment and is likely to appeal to the majority of voters who are moderate independents.

By: dragonlady

dragonlady — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:58:04 +0000

Crist is a popular, moderate GOP governor. Even though some may disagree with his policies, I hope most in the GOP will see he’s clearly an asset and belongs in the big tent.