He's running for the Senate. I must confess that Charlie Crist is one of my favorite Republicans, and might well be a plausible path toward Republican revival in 2016 or later. He has exactly the sort of profile that might be attractive for a GOP desperate to appeal to young voters: he has a strong environmental record, comparatively good on health care, moderate on gay rights, and generally more willing to accept compromise and work in a bipartisan manner, instead of the Boehner-McConnell scorched earth model that is only making the GOP more unpopular. He's not dogmatic (though he is assuredly conservative, especially on tax issues--see Nate Silver for more). He seems like almost exactly the politician that Republicans ought to start noticing.
What's really remarkable is that Crist is an honest, ethical, right-thinking Republican in a party where such traits are much more of a liability than an asset. His support of the stimulus, is spurning of ACORN-bashing during the election, his quashing of voter suppression efforts in Florida and his support of allowing released convicts to vote--a no-brainer, in my opinion--are all principled stances of conviction that generally brought him little benefit and might actually have cost him political capital among his base and GOP elites. It's always rare to encounter real conviction politicians, and coming off of a several-year period in which the GOP deservedly got a reputation as a craven and cynical political machine that was more interested in helping its buddies than helping the American people, turning the party over to someone who is in many respects the anti-Rove might be just the ticket. Plus, speaking electorally, being overwhelmingly popular in a critical swing state that was just won by Barack Obama might well be the most valuable asset Crist possesses.
I can tell you right now that a Crist-like (hmm...that just looks wrong) Republican Party would both excite and scare me--it would scare me because Crist could probably win blue states like Oregon and New Hampshire, but it would excite me because Crist could well be the GOP's Tony Blair, reforming his party to compete in modern times while preserving the things worth preserving. And having a principled, intelligent Republican Party is good for the country. Alas, this is all speculation, but I do think that after eight years--and especially after 2012, when I fully expect the wingnut express to derail after nominating someone like Sarah Palin who will lose in a landslide--picking a winner could be a good deal more attractive to the Republicans. A Cristian (even worse!) GOP would be competitive nationally, while a Palinian GOP would only be able to compete in the Deep South, Alaska, and the Mormon Belt. So, while I'd rather have another Democrat elected to the Senate out of Florida, the GOP could do a whole lot worse than Charlie Crist.
