We had third party gubernatorial candidate Max Linn on the big radio show this morning, and I have one word to describe him: caffeinated. The guy's got energy. And I think he impressed as many callers to our show as he did viewers to last night's debate on MSNBC.
Linn made it into the debate literally at the eleventh hour, much to the chagrin of GOP candidate Charlie Crist, who literally looked like a cross between a deer in the headlights and a punch drunk boxer throughout the debate. Crist refused to even look at Linn, who would not stop breaking the rules abuot directly addressing his opponents. Linn was as aggressive as Crist seemed confused, and the result was, Crist came off as a bit of an empty suit. Davis, meanwhile, stood in the middle, probably gleefully watching the third party guy, who is working with veterans of both the Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura campaigns, tear apart the Republcan nominee. (Linn is a former Republican, who up to now was best known for outing Charlie Crist on a South Florida radio show. We also had on Bob Norman, who has made outing Crist and other supposedly closeted pols into a veritable artform.)
So how'd they do in the debate? Says the Miami Herald:
Just 20 minutes before the debate began, a federal judge said Reform Party candidate Max Linn could join in. Organizers dragged a third lectern into the Tampa television studio, and the major candidates braced for the unknown.
Linn lashed Crist at every opportunity, keeping him on the defensive and reinforcing Davis' more measured attacks against the longtime front-runner.
The punchy pace was not what Crist had in mind. He had objected to the original proposed format, an informal setting with the candidates and host Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball sitting around a table. Crist got his lectern -- but didn't bargain for the double-barreled attack from Davis and Linn.
Ouch. It really, really hurt.
It was clear to me yesterday after talking with two people in the campaigns that the Davis folks were much happier to have Linn around than the Repubs. The PB Post agrees:
Crist adviser Stuart Stevens grumbled that the campaign had not been notified that Linn had filed a lawsuit. Candidates will be unwilling to participate in future Florida NBC debates as a result, he said.
Davis was more charitable about Linn's presence: "He brought a little democracy. Democracy is a little sloppy, a little unpredictable. But the voters tonight won. They got to see the difference between the candidates."
Linn, though, wasn't Crist's only new antagonist. A candidate who relies on a steady drumbeat of sound bites, from "I'm a happy warrior" to "I'll be the people's governor," Crist was rarely able to utter those words during the debate. Matthews, of MSNBC's Hardball, seemed determined to live up to his reputation for rapid-fire interrogations.
In a key exchange, he badgered Crist about the state's murder rate and why Crist was claiming that crime was going down when murder was going up.
Here's the transcript of Matthews playing the Marion Barry card on Charlie:
Matthews: Mr. Crist did you say that crime has gone down? And led us to believe that violent crime has gone down, when violent crime has gone up?
Crist: Crime has gone down in our state.
Matthews: But violent crime?
Crist: Violent crime has gone down in our state as well. The only violent crime that’s up is murder.
Matthews: Well that’s what Marion Berry used to say in DC when I was there. He’d say crime is down but sorry murder is up, the only exception. For most people, murder is the big one.
Crist: It is the biggest one.
Matthews: Well why didn’t you say that. Why did you say crime has gone down when you knew that murder had gone up?
Crist: Because crime has gone down, Chris.
Matthews: That’s a technical point.
Crist: It’s not a technical point. Crime in our state has gone down. It’s a 35-year low right now. I’m telling you the truth.
Mathews: I’m sorry the only reason I’m saying that is because it’s exactly what Marion Berry said after his years in DC.
Crist: Well my name’s Charlie Crist.
Yes it is, and Mr. Crist, you have just been served.
Linn saved the worst of his vitriol for Crist. Matthews had to stop Linn twice from taunting Crist, saying the rules forbade candidates from talking to each other, as Linn said, "Answer the question, Charlie, for a change," and "I'm over here, Charlie. Can you see me or are you still ignoring me?"
With Linn acting in effect as a spoiler for Davis, the debate turned into what some considered the best moment so far in Davis' underdog campaign.
Meanwhile, the Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell was not impressed:
Overall, I don't think anybody on stage looked spectacular tonight. Between Chris Matthews' intense questioning and Reform Party candidate Max Linn wailing away at everything and everyone in the room, it was kind of a melee. And both Jim Davis and Charlie Crist fumbled. But i think Crist fumbled more -- on everything from pretending not to know how much money he'd taken from the insurance industry to the Terri Schiavo and Mark Foley cases. I don't think Crist collapsed. So maybe, as the frontrunner, he still cleared the requisite low bar. We shall see in one week.
The Sun-Sentinel has video bytes, and analysis of the "flaying" suffered by Crist, who is starting to elicit my pity (not much, though, because he's still ahead in the polls.)
Near the end of the debate, Matthews directed the conversation toward the topic that has overwhelmed the campaign up until now -- homeowner insurance costs.
Davis used the topic to flay Crist for wanting to "stay the course" with Republican policies and for failing to stand up to powerful insurance lobbyists. Crist wants to eliminate Florida-only subsidiaries of national insurance companies. He also wants to force companies who sell auto and life insurance in Florida to also sell property insurance if they want to do business in the state.
Davis blasted Crist for reportedly accepting at least $2 million campaign donations from insurers and criticized Crist's proposal to stabilize the market, even suggesting that Jeb Bush, who attended the debate, has expressed doubts about the workability of his solutions.
"What Charlie Crist has been offering is what Gov. Bush has recently said is something that sounds good but wouldn't work," Davis said. "I will stand up to this very powerful insurance lobby, something Charlie Crist has failed to do for four years as attorney general."
After the debate, Bush told reporters that Davis mischaracterized Crist's remarks, and he blasted Matthews for directing the debate to issues like the war in Iraq that, he said, have little to do with the Florida governor's job.
Thanks, Jeb. Don't watch much Hardball, do you? Iraq IS Chris Matthews issue, full stop.
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
