Charlie Crist has been promising to get more proactive in dealing with the Marco Rubio challenge, but he's taking a strange new approach to dealing with his growing unpopularity among the Republican base: attack the base for being wrong. He buried it in a statement of his own conservative bona fies, but it's there all the same, calling out the teabaggers on their very teabaggishness:
"It's hard to be more concervative than I am on issues - though there are different ways stylistically to communicate that - I'm pro-life, I'm pro-gun, I'm pro-family, and I''m anti tax.... I don't know what else you're supposed to be, except maybe angry too..."
... and makes fun of their marginalization... but it's that same marginalization (real or not) that fuels the very sense of victimization that's at the root of their anger:
"There are a lot of Republicans that don't have the inclination to go to executive committee meetings....There is wide swath of republican voters out there that don't necessarily listen to cable tv all the time."
With that in mind, let's take a look at the latest poll of the race (from late last week):
Research 2000 for Daily Kos (11/16-18, likely voters, 1/26-28 in parentheses):
Charlie Crist (R): 47 (57)
Marco Rubio (R): 37 (4)
Undecided: 16 (21)
(MoE: ±5%)
Kendrick Meek (D): 33 (28)
Charlie Crist (R): 50 (49)
Undecided: 17 (23)
Kendrick Meek (D): 38 (31)
Marco Rubio (R): 30 (22)
Undecided: 32 (47)
(MoE: ±4%)
http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/5942/flsen-flgov-rubio-keeps-getting-closer