Crist Trades Endorsement for Vice-President Spot?

There's a very interesting item by John Fund in today's Political Diary from the Wall Street Journal (sub req) on what happened to Florida Governor Crist's promised endorsement of Rudy Giuliani. After telling Giuliani that he would endorse him on November 18th, he didn't - and it looks as if he gave it to John McCain in a blatant play to be his Vice-Presidential pick.

Mr. Giuliani, who will end his campaign today with an endorsement of Mr. McCain, has some reason to be bitter about his bad luck in Florida. Back in the fall he was more or less told by Florida's popular governor Charlie Crist that he would be receiving his endorsement around November 18. Shortly before that date, the endorsement was put on hold, though until late last week Mr. Giuliani was assured that the governor would remain neutral.

When Governor Crist finally endorsed Mr. McCain on Saturday night, the Giuliani campaign was given just three minutes notice that their opportunity to score a major breakthrough in the state had vanished. And the Crist endorsement did matter. Mr. McCain trailed in Florida right up until the governor made his plans known. Exit polls showed that a stunning 42% of Republicans rated Gov. Crist's endorsement as an important factor in their vote.

Look for Mr. Crist to continue to position himself as a vice presidential candidate. He could provide Mr. McCain with the sizable political benefit of nailing down a state that has played a key role in all recent close presidential elections. The Arizona Senator could then concentrate on battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, where Democrats have prevailed by narrow margins in the past.

The way that this was done leads me to believe that the Senator had an active roll in all of this, and was not the surprised recipient of Crist's beneficence that he appeared to be. McCain, and the games he plays, are becoming more and more distasteful to me. It's looking as if he's not that much different from Bill and Hillary Clinton after all.