Word: crist
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...part and parcel of Crist's grand 2008 strategy for Florida. Like seemingly everybody who lives here, Crist, a Pennsylvania native, wasn't born in Florida. But he's arguably the state's most unabashed cheerleader, and like many in the state - which is expected soon to pass New York as the nation's third most populous - he's weary of watching small electorates like Iowa and New Hampshire set the presidential nomination agenda...
...equally frustrated by all the Flori-duh jokes still rippling from the state's 2000 presidential recount debacle. But for all those laughs at its expense, that mess revealed what a crucial swing state Florida had become, and Crist feels the state was squandering its kingmaker cachet with a primary so late in the season. By leapfrogging ahead of the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests, the Sunshine State has landed in a larger national spotlight - and so has its irrepressibly sunny governor...
...Crist insists that Florida has won out in the larger picture. For one thing, he argues, Florida struck a much needed blow for reform of the nation's antiquated presidential nomination system. (After Florida moved up its primary, Michigan followed suit, holding its election Jan. 15. It received the same DNC punishment.) Even Florida Democrats agree. Says Congressman Robert Wexler, Barack Obama's Florida campaign chairman, "I think Florida has quite effectively started the move toward primary reform," which he and others hope by 2012 will include something like rotating regional primaries...
...What's more, just as Michigan's earlier primary garnered lots of attention for the issue of lost manufacturing jobs, Crist says Florida's concerns are far more front-and-center now than if its primary were held in the spring. "The attention being given this week to Florida and the issues we care about - tax reform, a national catastrophic insurance fund, Everlglades restoration - is huge," he says...
...Since he's made a point of reviving the bipartisan cooperation that his conservative predecessor, Jeb Bush, seemed to disdain, Crist also hopes the state's primary moment will point up "the kind of spirit of working together that is exactly what Americans are yearning for right now. They're tired of the bickering, and they want a new way of doing things in Washington." The G.O.P. presidential hopefuls, intentionally or not, seemed to pick up on that in their debate at Florida Atlantic University last Thursday, displaying a more civil tone than the recent spats between Obama and Hillary...