Florida's Charlie Crist as new Obama fan? GOP has an answer for that.

“As the mainstream media rush to portray this as a victory for Democrats, please join me in reminding reporters and the people of Florida exactly what you and I already know; this is political opportunism, plain and simple,” Meeks said in the ad.

Democrats recently went down an almost identical path with former Alabama Congressman Davis. Davis, an African-American who had seconded Mr. Obama’s nomination for the presidency at the 2008 Democratic convention, had been scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Monday evening. (Monday’s events have been canceled due to the impending storm, Isaac, and it's not yet clear who all will get to speak later in the week.)

In response to that announcement last week, however, the Democratic National Committee released a web video of Davis’s remarks from the 2008 convention. Therein, he effusively praised Obama and the Democratic Party. 

“Artur Davis’s speech at the GOP Convention isn’t about Barack Obama,” the ad reads at its conclusion. “It’s about Artur Davis.” 

Crist announced his support for Obama in an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times, in which he heralds the virtues of Obama initiatives such as the economic stimulus of 2009 and the health-care reform law that Republicans abhor. Crist even goes to bat for the president’s treatment of Medicare within the health-reform law, which Republicans have attempted to define as a “raid” on Medicare funds.

That’s in contrast to how Crist portrayed Republicans. In his op-ed, he said that “an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the [Rep. Todd] Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.”

“The truth is,” Crist concluded, “that the [Republican] party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve.”

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