Posted on 06/10/2009 3:47:01 AM PDT by james.richardson
Former U.S. Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) announced Monday, via YouTube, he intends to challenge Governor Charlie Crist and former Florida House of Representatives Speaker Marco Rubio in the Republican primary for Florida’s vacant Senate seat in 2010.
Echoing Rubio’s conservative sentiments, the Florida snowbird said his entry into the already-crowded primary was precipitated by the Republican Party establishment’s unacceptable lurch to the left. “I can’t stand by and watch what is happening to our country – and our Party,” Smith said in his online address.
Smith’s new-found moral compass and concern for the direction of his country and of the Republican Party is awfully amusing, of course, given his opportunistic and decidedly vindictive nature.
After mounting a comically unsuccessful independent bid for President in 2000, Smith lost a bitter primary battle to then-Congressman John Sununu two years and two parties later. But unfortunately Smith’s presence on the national scene didn’t end with his ousting.
Hoping he might reemerge as a key political player, ostensibly as a Democrat after having sampled all competing parties, Smith endorsed Senator John Kerry in his ill-fated campaign for President in 2004, citing Kerry’s “courage and character” forged on the battlefields of Vietnam.
To no one’s surprise, Smith fell short – as in, tripped at the starting line – in his 2004 bid for Senate after publicly advocating for Democrat John Kerry’s campaign. Suffice it to say, partisan-aligned Republican primary voters did not positively receive Smith’s defection. His campaign aides have seemingly forecasted a different outcome for 2010, however, hoping the sixty-eight-year-old has finally cast aside his scarlet letter.
But does this carpet-bagging, party-defecting sore loser stand a chance at besting Crist, the establishment favorite, or Rubio, the up-and-coming conservative sweetheart? Not a chance.
Smith will face three considerable obstacles in his path to victory – namely, his notorious disloyalty to the party he now seeks to represent, his opportunistic relocation to Florida, and his likely ineffectiveness in driving the discussion in a field of popular candidates.
Assuming the stars align and Smith can, by some means, overcome the first two hurdles, his campaign will undoubtedly be eclipsed by Crist’s increasing popularity and Rubio’s endearing dark-horse quality.
When Smith loses, and he will, can we expect him to endorse President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012 and permanently sever ties with the ‘leftward lurching’ Republican Party? If only we were that lucky...
Cross-posted at Skepticians.com.
Can conservatives really be this stupid? Splitting the conservative vote assures the victory of the liberal.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
What an idiot.
A useful idiot for the RINOs.
I dont know too much about Florida politics but I do know that Christ is a RINO and Smith is a Democrat, but how is Marco Rubio? Is this a case of the lesser of three evils or is Rubio a solid Conservative? Also, can he realistically beat Christ?
What is this guy, some kind of retard?
That's the goal.
They’ve split the conservative vote every time here in Florida. Some of it is just arrogance; people who know they have no chance of winning but just want to make their statement, regardless of the fact that it will prevent a stronger conservative from getting elected and throw it to a RINO.
Having somebody come from New Hampshire to do this is, however, a little much even for Florida.
Didn’t Hussein win this state big, 54% or something? Against a moderate, no less. Florida is a lost cause for conservatism, IMO.
He’s like Bunning. He simply does not know when his time in the sun is over.
One word will sink him: Carpetbagger.
Much of Florida is part of the Deep South where being a carpetbagger is worse than being caught molesting barnyard animals. Bob Smith might have some viability in South Florida, but not in North Florida and the Panhandle. If anything, he might take votes away from Crist, which would help Rubio.
“Florida is a lost cause for conservatism”
One could hardly make that claim based on an election between two liberals. In 2008, the voters approved a anti gay marriage amendment by 63%. On top of that, the state government continues to aggressively cut property taxes and expand gun rights (they recently passed a law forcing employers to allow employees who have concealed license to keep their guns in their cars while at work). In addition, the legislature is now seriosuly considering offshore drilling.
“...the legislature is now seriosuly considering offshore drilling.”
Seriously considering and actually doing it are two entirely diferent things, that in the end when this issue has been kicked around for as long as it has been by Florida, you think it was either a done deal and the rigs are heading out there to do it, or it has been defeated, never to be revived ever again...
I don’t see any rigs going out there to punch a few holes in the ground yet...
Rubio is the real deal. He is exactly what we need in the senate.
Is this a joke?
You got it ! Smith is in there to split the vote in FLorida’s Aug 24th 2010 primary...
http://www.theusmat.com/
You got it ! Smith is in there to split the vote in FLorida’s Aug 24th 2010 primary...
http://www.theusmat.com/home.htm
The state house actually passed it at the end of the session. The senate didn’t get to it.
Yep, yet there are still no holes being dug to help ween us off the foreign supply...
See, the other thing is this fantasy that it would take us ten years to make a difference in the domestic/foreign supply ratio...
So why start something that would take that long to make a difference.../sarc
There are some people we see that should not be allowed to espouse flawed logic...
At least we should be allowed to call them on it...
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