Free Republic

Republicans will have former Rep. Artur Davis speaking at their national convention this week — the man who served as Barack Obama’s national co-chair in 2008 and seconded his nomination at the Democratic convention that year. Democrats now have their answer, a prominent former Republican officeholder who will speak at the Democratic convention in Charlotte next week: Florida’s former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will be a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. An official with President Barack Obama’s campaign said Sunday that Crist will speak at next week’s convention in Charlotte, N.C., but the day hasn’t been worked out. Actually,...

Yesterday on FoxNews I heard Geraldine Ferraro say that whoever coined the term ObamaCare was brilliant. She said it took all the negatives of the plan and tied it around Obama's neck. So I know my fellow Freepers will have the answer to the question "Who first coined the word "ObamaCare". Also, since the people clearly regard ObamaCare as negative, how are conservatives going to get us back to FreeMarket Health Care?

Florida governor and Republican-turned-independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist said in an interview on an Orlando television station today that he would have voted for the health care overhaul passed earlier this year - and then promptly claimed he "misspoke" and actually opposes the bill. "I would have voted for it, but I think it can be done better," Crist said in the interview, the relevant portion of which which you can see at left. The comment seemed to reflect a change in position by the governor, who had stated previously he would have opposed the bill. Not long after the...

Amid revelations about how Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio wielded his Florida GOP credit card as state House speaker (not exactly conservatively), it seems some of his most vocal conservative supporters are plenty forgiving. Rubio agreed to reimburse the state party about $3,000 after the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald bureau revealed that while House speaker he double-billed the state party and Florida taxpayers for eight flights between Miami and Tallahassee. Club for Growth spokesman Michael Connolly: "Sounds like Marco is doing the right thing reimbursing taxpayers for the $3,000. Hopefully Gov. Crist can do the same thing about that...

Charlie Crist apparently wants to cast himself as a reasonable moderate in the Florida Republican primary for the open Senate seat. That may be understandable with Marco Rubio’s rise as a conservative star in the national political fundament, but it takes more than gainsay to make an argument for moderate positions. Call this a Kirk Watson moment; when the Palm Beach Post challenged Crist’s insistence that he wouldn’t scrap ObamaCare by asking him to identify anything he liked about it, Crist came up empty (via Newsbeat1): Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told The Palm Beach Post editorial...

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist is a Republican. But in so many ways, you wouldn't know it -- from championing felon rights to backing the federal stimulus package, he's bucked his party's agenda until now. Crist welcomed President Barack Obama to the Sunshine State with open arms seven months ago. The president was here to campaign for the stimulus. That was then and this is now. "There are concerns that we have about the direction of this administration," Crist said on CNN. Crist said the country won't vote for Obama again. The governor even hit national news Tuesday morning to...

MACKINAC ISLAND, Michigan (CNN) – Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he thinks President Barack Obama could be in for an ousting from office similar to what happened to Democratic President Jimmy Carter after his first term. "I think the people wanted a change," the Florida Republican said, speaking of the election of Obama in November while drawing similarities to events decades earlier. "They wanted a change back in 1976. You remember? Richard Nixon had been president. That ended. Gerald Ford took over. The people decided they wanted a change. They got one-Jimmy Carter. Four years later, they took care of...

Gov. Crist wants to be Sen. Crist, and to get there he's running in two very different races at once. That explains Gov. Crist's fixation on dishwashers and guns. Last week, Gov. Crist announced with fanfare "his commitment to increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions." He really was endorsing $17.5''million in federal rebates for Floridians to buy energy-efficient refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers and such. It's like the popular "cash for clunkers," but aimed at appliances instead of cars. This is a perfect polishing of the populist, moderate Charlie Crist. Middle-class voters who can't afford a new car can afford,...

Gov. Charlie Crist said he wasn't sure if he would host another climate-change summit and is backing away from his cap-and-trade energy policy. BY MARC CAPUTO TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist is cooling to global warming. Under mounting criticism from fellow Republicans, Crist looks ready to cancel his climate-change summit and is backing away from advocating a "cap-and-trade" energy policy. At his well-publicized climate summit last summer, Crist pushed a number of energy plans to encourage renewable energy development and establish a cap-and-trade market that would penalize fossil-fuel use. But Crist's plans were shredded by the Republican Legislature and his...

Gov. Charlie Crist says his health-insurance idea should be a national model, even though it's done little to help Florida's uninsured. BY MARC CAPUTO TALLAHASSEE -- A success rate of less than a tenth of a percent might not sound like much, but to Gov. Charlie Crist it's campaign-trail bragging material for healthcare reform. Crist's new Cover Florida healthcare proposal has signed up only 3,757 people in a state with nearly four million uninsured. Meantime, an estimated 77,250 Floridians have lost health-insurance coverage since Cover Florida began releasing statistics in March. Yet Crist touts Cover Florida as a ``national model''...

Former Florida GOP chair endorses Crist Florida Sen. candidate, Charlie Crist, announces that Al Cardenas, a former chair of the Florida Republican party, is officially backing his Senate bid. In endorsing him, Cardenas also applauds Marco Rubio's accomplishments and "spirited campaign". “Today, I am pleased to announce my support of Governor Charlie Crist’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2010,” said Cardenas who served as Chairman of the Republican Party from 1998-2003. “I witnessed Charlie’s energy, focus, and leadership as he went on to become our Commissioner of Education and Attorney General. Governor Crist re-energized the state’s top lawyer office...

Last year I supported Sen. John McCain for president. Despite these efforts, the American public chose Barack Obama as the person they wanted in the White House to confront the worst financial market turmoil since the Great Depression and the worst recession in a generation. Regardless of whom they voted for Nov. 4, he is our president, and every patriotic American should hope he succeeds in ending the economic problems that now beset our country. Soon after his inauguration, the president signed legislation aimed at stimulating economic growth. Many good and decent people opposed this measure, and some even offered...

The Republican Party has scarcely begun to repair a wound that threatens to confine it to minority status: its 2006 collapse among Hispanic voters. Driven by some Republicans’ sharp attacks on illegal immigration and — as many Hispanics perceived it, immigrants in general — Latino voters fled the GOP en masse in the midterm elections, then turned on John McCain, as well. . . . . . There are stirrings of a Republican response. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has spoken with Hispanic leaders about creating a new organization to back Latino candidates. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has made...