…if the Democrats want to keep the R from the seat. If Meek gets the nomination, Marco Rubio wins; if Greene gets it, Crist picks up enough votes to make the race competitive. And, of course, if Crist wins he’ll then finish the project of becoming a Democrat. That was Arlen Specter’s mistake, you see: openly turning your coat will strike too many people as being too raw. Better by far to lie until after the election, and not give them the chance to complain for six years.

The latest numbers from Rasmussen support this:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Florida shows Rubio with 38% of the vote and Crist at 33% if Congressman Kendrick Meek is the nominee. Meek earns 21%. Only one percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

If billionaire Jeff Greene is the Democratic candidate, Crist gets 37% support to Rubio’s 36%, with Greene trailing at 20%. two percent (2%) like another candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Needless to say: with numbers like that African-American voters will simply have to accept that the needs of the party leadership trump any kind of nod towards diversity and inclusion in the United States Senate. Kendrick Meek is inconvenient, and his win would be less personally satisfying to the white men who run the Democratic party than would be a Crist conversion; after all, the Democratic party reflexively expects African-American voters to keep their place. But a convert… yes, yes, that tells the Democratic party leadership that they really do matter, and that they really are the wave of the future, and never mind what the national election results say.

Besides, African-American voters have Alvin Greene in South Carolina to get excited about, right? So what’s the problem? From the point of view of the Democratic party’s leadership cadre: Greene, Meek, what’s the difference?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.