For those of you who might have forgotten lately, Charlie Crist is, in fact, still the governor of Florida.
I can’t really blame you if you did.
I mean, he hasn’t done a lot in that position lately while he’s been spending most of his time campaigning for senator.
But hey, the man has got to get a job, right? After all, we know he needs the expense account to take his family to Disney.
It seems Crist wants the Senate job so badly he’s willing to change his opinion hourly to get it.
If you read my column last week, you know I’m one of many who are tired of the pointless fighting between the political parties.
It is a similar sentiment that is fueling Crist’s Senate run.
However, a problem with independents can arise when on-the-fence voters don’t know for whom or what they’re voting.
You would think this problem would be easy to overcome with TV commercials and a website, and in most cases you would be right.
Unfortunately, it often seems that Crist doesn’t even know how he would vote.
Worse yet, it seems his viewpoints change so regularly that “flip-flopper” doesn’t even describe him anymore.
And we aren’t talking about a politician who has held office for years just changing his mind on a specific issue.
On at least three issues, Crist has routinely and publicly flip-flopped with, at most, just months between the statements, and on one occasion, the flip happened within hours.
It has been on Crist’s website for months that he is opposed to the health care reform.
However, in an interview on Aug. 27, Crist said he would have voted for the health care bill if he was in the Senate.
Funny enough, on that same day, his website still said he was opposed to it. Talk about sending mixed signals.
But it got even more twisted when hours later, Crist’s camp sent out an official statement saying he would not have voted for the health care bill had he been in Senate at the time.
Confused yet?
He has also flipped his position on the stimulus package, originally coming out in support and then saying he never thought it was a good idea.
Crist is trying to make himself seem liberal enough to get some Democrat votes while not going too far so he can still get the moderate Republican votes.
But that’s just it: it is all an act, saying whatever he needs to say to get elected and changing his opinion to coincide with whatever is popular at the time.
In a time when we might look to independents or moderates who are willing to cross party lines to get things done, Crist is still not the answer.
Sorry, Charlie, looks like you’re just going to have to pay your own way to Disney.
Chris Dodson is a first-year journalism and finance student. His column appears every Monday.
