Bill McCollum: Crist Ties Hurting Romney

Popular former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is predicting that the makeup of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s inner circle of advisers, which includes several strategists who ran former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s ill-fated Senate campaign against conservative standard-bearer Marco Rubio, will hurt Romney’s image with Florida voters.

In an exclusive Newsmax interview Monday evening, McCollum said Sunshine State voters “will not be favorably inclined to that, because most Republican primary voters in Florida know that Charlie Crist flopped on them. He went over to the Democrats’ side … it just wasn’t the same Charlie Crist they thought they’d elected.”

In 2006, Crist ran on a conservative platform to succeed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But the pragmatic positions Crist took as governor, including his veto of a bill popular with conservatives that would link the pay of Florida teachers to students’ test scores, fostered his image as a political opportunist.

Still, Crist was the overwhelming favorite to win his 2010 U.S. Senate race. Pundits dubbed him the “inevitable senator,” and he led Rubio by over 30 points in the early polls.

Crist’s strategy was to woo swing voters while keeping Florida conservatives at arms-length during the primary campaign – tactics some analysts see as eerily similar to the approach taken by Romney.

The coup de grace came in February 2009 at a Fort Myers, Florida rally, when Crist literally embraced Democratic President Barack Obama’s nearly $1 trillion stimulus plan. Former Gov. Bush described Crist’s support for Obama’s policies “unforgiveable,” and Crist’s poll numbers plummeted....

The "Crist" connection is not the only indication of his qualification deficits.

In a State that sent Rubio to the Senate, West to the House, and Scott to the Governor's Office, how could the voters consider a man who, when presented the opportunity to tell what he had done on behalf of the "conservative" movement, offered up an explanation that he had a family and worked, with a few more mentions of himself?

Brian Williams and NBC set it up for Romney by banning applause, knowing full well that applause lines would go to Gingrich, which, in turn, would show him to be the more exciting candidate.

Williams also set Romney up for a possible great finish by encouraging him to provide his interpretation of "conservatism" by explaining what he had done on its behalf.

In America, over the past few decades, there are shining examples of business leaders who, perceiving threats to free enterprise principles by their government, made bold efforts to warn their fellow citizens and to "conserve" (preserve) founding principles.

For instance, one such business leader in Illinois named James R. Evans wrote a book of warning way back in the 80's. Another business leader in North Carolina, W. D. Stedman, spent years investing dollars and efforts in a free enterprise education program and related national programs intended to "preserve" (conserve) the ideas of liberty, including books, radio messages, speeches, etc. As part of that program he used excerpts from the Evans book, as follows:

"1. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, individual freedom and creativity?

"2. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, the power of some citizens over other citizens?

"3. Does this legislation or idea recognize that the persons who will exercise the power are themselves imperfect human beings?

"4. Does this legislation or idea recognize that government is incapable of creating wealth?

"5. Does this legislation or idea authorize taking from some what belongs to them, and giving it to others to whom it does not belong?
If 'thou shalt not steal' is a valid commandment, can we assume that it is meant to apply only to individuals and not to government (which is made up of individuals), even if those persons in power pass laws which sanction such redistribution of the wealth of others?'

"6. Does this legislation or idea encourage, or discourage, the very highest level of morality and responsibility from the individual?
. . .when government makes actions 'legal' by some citizens at the expense of other citizens, the result may be behavior which would not be considered possible by individuals acting alone.

"7. Does this legislation or idea propose that the 'government' do something which the individual cannot do without committing a crime?"**

**7 principles drawn from James R. Evans book, "America's Choice: Twilight's Last Gleaming or Dawn's Early Light" and reprinted in a Stedman Corporation (Asheboro, NC) booklet entitled "I'm Only One, What Can I Do?" Many others, across this nation, have made similar efforts in what is called the effort for "conservatism."

Now, the question is:

What was Mitt Romney doing on behalf of "conservatism" as a young business leader, and in the intervening years? Just participating in the benefits of free enterprise does not qualify as working to preserve it!

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