With the contest for the governor's seat looming, Florida is waiting with bated breath to find out what Charlie Crist will use for his campaign theme.
If he has one it isn't discernible and Crist isn't able to plead a lack of funds for the delay.
He might be saving it all for a last-minute blitz of negative advertising, a tried and true method for a desperate candidate. If he had planned to attack Rick Scott on his record, he would have begun long ago.
But it isn't clear just what he would attack. That is, what negatives he would utilize other than Rick Scott: he doesn't even have a great tan.
The fact that Florida is in good fiscal condition much better than Scott inherited from Crist doesn't seem ripe for exploitation.
Healthy employment levels might be a better subject.
The left seemingly has a great antipathy to employment. The serial job-killer in the White House who was hugged by Crist has done everything possible to move people from payrolls to the dole.
The state's budget, however, is healthy, because the governor and Legislature acted prudently during the cyclic downturn.
Apparently, Crist needs help. On his website he has a poll imploring readers to finish this sentence: I support Charlie Crist for governor because ... Maybe his followers can come up with something catchy.
But, judging primarily by Facebook posts, most liberals apparently are fixated on the fiction that Scott is a crook.
Whenever I hear that assertion, I beseech the speaker to do his civic duty and take his firsthand knowledge and evidence to the proper authorities so that Scott can be brought to justice. So far, no takers.
Years ago, a painstaking investigation was done of the company Scott ran. Alas for liberals, the investigation couldn't even find probable cause to charge him with a crime, and it was not for lack of trying.
Another charge leveled on the Crist website is that Scott doesn't believe in climate change, which is what the alarmists are calling global warming (formerly global cooling) these days. Because that puts Scott among the majority of rational thinkers, it doesn't seem to be a particularly viable strategy, either. (We must explain for the low-information voters that the point of contention is not whether the Earth is warming slightly after a cooling period, but whether humans are the cause and whether it is worth shutting down civilization in an attempt to prevent the apocalypse alarmists posit.)
What are Crist's own views on issues? Well, what day is it? The chameleon of Florida politics notably changes his views as he evolves.
Currently, he contends that he will create an insurance market with low prices. Wowser.
He also will work to ensure that all Florida children have access to a world-class education. Okey-dokey.
Personally, I'm anticipating that Scott will be blasted with invective of the sort that clever lawyers can invent easily. Vague, unspecified, unprovable crimes against the people kind of stuff. Crist, as we all know, is for the people.
Let the fun begin.
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
