Charlie Crist didn't have to answer a single question to win the gubernatorial debate Wednesday night. All he had to do is break the rules and take advantage.
Charlie breaks the rules, the debate organizers bungle their reaction, and who's the fall guy?
You know it's going to be Gov. Rick Scott.
Even when they found out the governor wasn't pulling a stunt after all, the mainstream media were still pretending they didn't hear. They're still talking about the governor's "pettiness" over Charlie's fan. And Charlie gets another pass.
Nothing new in that.Charlie is their darling. He has a talent for schmoozing the Tallahassee press corps. I've written about it before. Rick Scott, on the other hand, struggles with Crist-style affectation, spends only as much time with reporters as he has to.
So let's put this phony Fangate thing from Wednesday in perspective. Read here the completeexplanatory statement from the debate partners, the Florida Press Association and Leadership Florida.
Charlie Crist wanted his fan on stage. As SaintPetersblog's Peter Schorsch told me Thursday, everybody knows Charlie doesn't make public appearances -- any public appearance -- without his fan. For whatever reason, the man has a fan fetish.
But no "electronic devices" were permitted. That was written in the rules, which each candidate signed and returned -- Scott on Oct. 9, Crist on Oct. 13. I was told later that an official from the Crist campaign wrote on the signed agreement a note saying Charlie wanted his fan if the room turned out to be uncomfortable.
But, come on ... the room was perfectly cool, even under the lights.
On the night, the organizers had done what they promised, made sure Broward College's Bailey Hall, venue for the debate, was a comfortable temperature. The temperature was 66 degrees on stage half an hour before the event's start time.
At 6 p.m. Charlie was told a fan was unnecessary. Yet, at some point between 6 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. -- in open defiance, let's be honest -- somebody went onto the stage and plugged in a fan under the Democratic candidate's podium.
Here's the crux of all this:
There was no "fantrum." None. At least not from Gov. Scott.
Scott did not refuse to go on stage because of the fan. He was told by the sponsors to wait until the rules violation was sorted. It was the sponsors who ordered the delay.
The partners' statement reads, "Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association did not anticipate or plan for the possibility that a candidate would not honor the debate rules. In retrospect, the debate partners should have been better prepared for this possibility."
What's more, I am now convinced the governor was set up like a bowling pin on a maple plank. Charlie knew exactly the mayhem his fan was causing, and figured out how to make it work in his favor.
How could I think such a thing? Because of what the debate partners said next:
"In addition," their statement reads, "we regret that one candidate was allowed to take the stage and allowed to talk before the fan issue was resolved."
Charlie was supposed to wait in the back with the governor "on the resolution of the rules issue." Instead, he parked himself at his podium, standing in a hold position. Pretty clever, actually.
At no time did Scott have any intention of playing games, of entering stage right like a prima donna, or throwing a temper tantrum.
It wasn't the governor who made the rules or insisted they be followed. It was the debate partners.
Unless, of course, as some of Crist's people are floating on Twitter, you care to believe the Press Association and Florida Leadership are lying to save the governor's bacon.
But ask yourself, if they were going to make up a story, wouldn't they make one up that reflected better on themselves? Two organizations that have partnered to run debates for years are admitting here that they had one job to do Wednesday night and they screwed it up. Yes, they did make a mess of things in more ways than one. But they wrote an explanation that sugar coats nothing, and I admire them for that.
You will get no such honest, explanatory statement from the Charlie Crist campaign. And why should they? The mainstreamers are complicit. Even knowing the truth, they're still happy to roll their thunder down the alley at Rick Scott.
The debate was televised in every one of Floridas 11 media markets. That's a lot of viewers left with the impression of Rick Scott that Charlie and his campaign want them to have. We all fell for it -- myself included -- for the first 12-or-so hours. But it has nothing to do with the truth and the truth needs better coverage.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423.Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
