Crist (for Crist and only about Crist nothing AGAINST Rubio)…..
Why he SHOULD be able to win…..
1. Has (proven he can win) WON State-wide Elections already (AG/Gov)
2. His popularity (though I’ve not seen any recent “popularity” ratings to know if they are holding.
3. Name recognation Nation and State-wide, Media Front Page on a regular basis (not always for the right reasons), Name recognition, even above beyond #2 for those who may be living under a Rock are most likely to know who he is and as pathetically stupid as it is it tends to make some difference (some voters are very stupid and vote on popularity and/or name recognition).
4. The Tax Issue, as currently pointed out Cig-Tax (Crist and taxes [includes press-links]) is NOT (IMO) as big a deal as being made or they (Republicans in the FL Legislature are supporting it) and is OFFSET by the Property Tax Cuts (by recent ballot initiative – again, same way MI Gov got it through – and the Mitt,Mike,Rudy points)
5. Has war-chest that will be needed to be competitive
6. That 2010 backlash we suspect and hope happens (obviously, this one is good for either Crist or Rubio – so I’ll give you one even with this one)
Why he MIGHT NOT win….
1. Our Sit-It-Out army here at RS cost him more votes than he makes up in Independents (that he needs to build on top of any CORE Republicans)
2. Been in Governorship too short a time (but he was AG for some time)… again, Palin, if most were willing to except that quick turnaround they’ll accept this one (same as they would have for Jindal for a quick win)
3. Ties to Bush family

Find me a Conservative that comes close enough to those “Positives” and he’d be the one, I don’t think Rubio fits those – he may be a better person to have in the Senate than Crist, but he has to start the mountain from the bottom where Crist is 1/2 way up already. THAT seems to be the NRSC’s position, doesn’t make it the BEST reasons to pick a Candidate but they are worried about gaining the seat rather than just taking a chance at gaining the seat.

expect people to explain how/why Rubio will be able to win a GENERAL ELECTION… but I suspect I’ll hear only Birds chirping again

Fair enugh…I’ll prove to you Rubio can win the GENERAL ELECTION when you prove Crist can win the GENERAL ELECTION. I can tell you why Rubio SHOULD win the GENERAL ELECTION Can you do the same for Crist

I don’t see it Black/White if you ain’t 100% in agreement your somehow AGAINST US….

How is the “but this goes to 11…..” supposed to win the General Election? I put forth 12, I got response on #3 Taxes and got (IMO) a weak response — rather, no specifics in ANY response…. Is it the Cig-Tax or something else!?!?!?!? Crist and taxes [includes press-links] Just giving me flack because I refuse to just “accept” your current position IN THIS ONE PARTICULAR INSTANCE does a dis-service to yourself IMO, as I know you are all capable of putting forth a REAL ARGUMENT (“but this goes to 11…. ” is what I get) There is overall Natl strategy and then each State is different to work a strategy in….. I’m not “hip” with lets back the Conservative REGARDLESS if he/she can/will Win. I want CONSERVATIVES that can/will Win GENERAL ELECTIONS not just Primaries, but no-one wants to go beyond the Primary.

Again, you don’t have to convince me, but how do you plan on convincing a FL Voter in the General Election?!?!? with ZERO answers now to someone like me in a friendly environment

What is the Tax Issue?
Is there someone other than Rubio that might be a GOOD choice?
Who are the potential Democrat opponents for the General (it matters)?
etc…..

For anyone just jumping in via this Comment: Crist/Rubio 12 points [with links] only 1 has half-hearted (and dismissively) been addressed.

Go ahead, deflect….. I’m not 100% blindly with you… so just be dismissive… We CANNOT just dismiss FL Voters – we actually have to be able to convince them WHY they should vote for RUBIO in the General Election over what-ever Democrat.

What I’m not understanding here is why you keep saying you agree with us but you keep making the case for moderating and voting for Crist over Rubio.

I forgave Rudy more than I did Mitt whom I forgave a bit more than Mike, all because of simple analysis of each situation, what/where/who they were up against (individual specifics and timing), the particular taxes involved, how much, etc….. I WOULD BE A HYPOCRITE if I did NOT give Crist some degree of slack – as he has worked (since ACE mentioned Rudy and what “else” he also did) for the Property Tax Cuts ((Crist and taxes [includes press-links]) like we did in MI under staunchly Conservative Gov. John Engler, also ultimately achieved by ballot initiative, as many other States have also gone on to do. It is the SUM TOTAL of the overall picture.

While I’m NO FAN of raising any Taxes, I keep seeing/hearing about “Raising Taxes on WORKING Families” and I wonder if that is just the easy TACTIC of distorting the (not entirely, of course, but trying to “suggest” it is something beyond what it is – certainly working people will be hit by a) Cigarette Tax!?!?! Many have been forgiven over that one, again depending on circumstances and perhaps how LARGE the increase was (and again, see: Crist and taxes [includes press-links]) *OR* someone needs to fill us in on what specifically this TAX is if it isn’t the Cig-Tax!?!?!

I am just out to help insure people have their best arguments…. If on behalf of Rubio RSers cannot put a convincing argument forth to fellow RedStaters – how is any AVERAGE FL VOTER supposed to be persuaded????? above beyond the “but he’s Conservative….” … It’s like I’m listening to Spinal Tap “but this one goes to Eleven…..” …… “but he’s Conservative….” coupled with $5 will get us a Starbucks BUT WILL IT GET US A GENERAL ELECTION WIN?

….”but the NRSC…..” …. and I put forth the 12 points and I hear nothing but Chirping Birds and Crickets, the Paint from the neighbors house drying, the backyard grass growing, etc….. (with the exception of you mbecker, I appreciate you chiming in on the 12 points, well… at least #3) Again, the average FL Voter isn’t going to respond to the “but he’s Conservative….” or the “but Crist is backed by the NRSC…..” followed by nothing of substance/merit to back up with details how that relates to the General Election Campaign Issue questions they will want answered.

You guys know you don’t really need to do too much to CONVINCE ME! Nor do you have to really convince me, because in the long run you know I’m gonna be their with you (more or less, it upsets folks that I will entertain Crist based on overall “what will win the seat and put it in the R column” which is different from what we ALL absolutely agree needs to happen “we need more high % Conservatives in DC” the two are, of course, not mutually exclusive concepts/problems – but I see them [different from many of my friends here] as a matter of OVERALL STRATEGY and what is the most effective strategy to get Democrats out of power). I focus on whether a strategy can be reasonably effective and yield results rather than what will make me feel good when I go to bed at night. I think that we ALL see this as “willing to take some hits/loses” but view the “loses” differently in that some here are willing to go 100% Conservative and (maybe) let them lose (that is their “lose”) and my definition of taking the loss is that someone like Crist becomes the compromise but is seated – we win in reducing Democrat power, numbers toward regaining majority, but lose in that we have some that is NOT as Conservative as we want him to be…. I want him to be REPUBLICAN loyal at least and be with us on tough votes RED-DOG unlike (Snow,Collins,disreSpecter) RINOs. I know some of you believe he will be the RINO rather than the RED-DOG and we should be able to have those/these honest/earnest discussions (and think about #8 as it relates to this).

I was briefly hopeful when Fred showed up but he either didn’t want it…or appeared to much like he didn’t want it and I fell back on what I considered to be the lesser of 7 evils.

Everyone keeps saying we need to moderate and run Crists and Snowes and Specters and Collinses and McCains and Grahams to win elections when there is not only no proof the strategy has worked for us, but there is no way for us to prove the opposite since the powers that be won’t let us run our candidates.

On that last, I’d say we already have proof based on the history of the last 28 years but we’re being told now we need to leave Regan and the 1994 revolution behind for a new message!

Huge strawman. First of all, the only one of those who even came close to “getting a pass” on raising taxes was Mitt and he got a pass on pretty much everything.

As a veteran of the MikeWars there were a few dedicated souls who were in the bag for him regardless, but they pretty much refused to deal with the tax issues because they got beaten bloody so many times. You can only watch Huckabee plead for any kind of tax increase and then go on TV and outright lie about it before you give up. And they eventually gave up and a good number of them (Ace in particular) converted.

As far as Rudy is concerned, he cut taxes in NYC. Crime went down, business went up and the number of abortions went down. On the facts of their governance, a good argument can be made that Rudy was THE conservative candidate.

Where Crist and Toomey is concerned, we have the party preemptively deciding that a Conservative can’t win without any evidence to the contrary and going to work overtime to defeat Conservatives in a primary or so knee cap them that they can’t win thereby proving their self fulfilling prophecy!

The reference to Bastogne was to point out that the 101st chose to fight a battle that many believed was lost and enabled Patton to ride to the rescue and kill or capture over 100,00 Germans and destroy most of the tanks and planes the Germans committed to their offensive…had they decided to surrender…I’m almost positive the Germans would have reached their objectives and they would have extended the war in the west considerably. by standing firm and making the fight the Germans not only didn’t reach their objectives because they had to commit considerable resources to the siege of Bastogne but they lost considerable resources in the fight which weakened them in the fight for the Rhine…

It’s the results of the decision to fight as opposed to the consequences of surrender that I was pointing out not calling anyone’s courage into question!

Of course, what do I know…I don’t know anything about history and I’ve never been a Precinct Chair, A District Convention Credentials committee member, District Delegate or State Convention Delegate..All Y want to do is yammer and insult everyone!