With Charlie Crist calling for a special legislative session to bring up a constitutional ban on offshore drilling, the Rubio campaign sends along a video of Charlie Crist cheering on Sarah Palin in 2008 as she tells an audience we need to "drill here, drill now," and a 2009 interview in which Crist endorsed legislation to drill five miles off Florida's coast.
You kind of have to admire the forthright shamelessness of Crist's flip-flop. In his April 29 " declaration of independence" speech, Crist claimed credit for making the "tough decisions" to both support and then oppose offshore drilling: "I've made some tough decisions as your governor, and they all haven't been popular, but I've done them because I think they're what's right for the people and what's right for our state, whether it's offshore drilling, whether it's -- and stopping it, whether it's fighting for our teachers and our children and education." It was the most revealing line of his speech.
A Mason-Dixon poll shows that Florida voters--unlike the rest of the country--have decisively turned against offshore drilling (55 to 35 percent) in the wake of the oil spill. Rasmussen shows different results--a plurality of voters continue to support offshore drilling (48 to 35 percent)--but the voters who back drilling are predominantly Republican. And Crist is looking to win over Democrats and independents in the hope of chasing Kendrick Meek from the field.