When it still mattered, Charlie Crist endorsed John McCain and arguably helped the senator win Florida and thus gain stature and momentum for Super Tuesday. Here’s hoping his reward might yet be a more favorable McCain view of, say, the national catastrophe fund bill should the Arizona senator become president.
What the reward won’t be is a Crist vice presidency. No matter how much national barnstorming he does with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Of course, being governor of the country’s biggest swing state is huge, but in a general election Crist doesn’t give him much more of what McCain already has – appeal to independents. McCain is a soft-core conservative and admired for his well-earned war-hero status. Crist is Republican Light – and a cheap-shot “bachelor” innuendo and a bad hurricane away from image implosion.
McCain’s long-time appeal to independents is moot if he can’t at least seriously placate – energizing is off the table – conservatives with one of their own on the ticket.
Now if Fred Thompson were at the top of the ticket