One went from inevitable to improbable, and the other from improbable to inevitable. There is a sense of disbelief spreading among Charlie Crist supporters, much like that spread among Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters, that that upstart – "that guy" – has come out of nowhere. Clinton supporters lamented, and now Crist supporters lament, that their candidate had paid their dues; it was to be their time.
First it was Obama running up an irrelevant win in Iowa, a racially tinged election in South Carolina, some well-timed primaries in the south, in the Midwest, and out west. Now it is Rubio who has been rolling through the party straw polls, hitting those small pass-through counties between Miami and Tallahassee, then Palm Beach, and then Pinellas (Charlie Crist’s home county). Then it was the media, who always revel in the horse-race, that seemed to get behind the Obama insurgency – turning MSNBC into a laughing-stock of all but the most ardent leftists. Now it’s the National Review and even the New York Times Magazine putting the picture of the young, clean-cut, unsullied, Mr. Smith-like newcomer on the front cover.
Maybe Crist will stage a Seabiscuit like comeback. His money advantage is quite a different situation than that faced Clinton. And it was only six months ago when I was comparing staff shakeups in the Rubio campaign to the demise of Katherine Harris. A lot can happen over the several months before the primary – and for that Charlie Crist should be very, very, thankful.
