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By glanko

McCain will pick Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida, as his VP.

With the recent endorsements of Mel Martinez and Crist, McCain has recaptured the lead in the Florida polls, however slightly, with only a day left to go. I think a win here will propel McCain to the nomination.

But the bigger question, why Crist?

Glad you asked.

1. McCain has foreign policy / national security on lockdown. He is free to balance his ticket with a strong domestic figure (read: a governor). Crist is an enormously popular, pro-life moderate - the perfect fit for McCain.

2. Florida is the fourth largest state in terms of population. It can't hurt to secure the state that decided the 2000 election by adding their very popular governor to the ticket.

3. Florida is (nominally) a southern state. I think pandering to the Solid South will be less of an issue this election, with the Dems effectively killing off the one southern contender for the nomiantion. The question will be whether Illinois Senator (i.e. "northerner") or New York Senator (i.e. "super northerner") will add a southerner to their ticket to try to carve out a bit of the South. If they don't, they'll be in rough shape as McCain will already have the Southwest captured - as New Mexico and Nevada are states that would otherwise be in play if the GOP nom was, say, Romney.

4. Crist is young and has the vigor to counterbalance McCain's...errr...wisdom.

Disclaimer: I think there could be some issues regarding Crist, particularly concerning his opaque personal life, that could work against the above logic, but we'll see.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).