DAILY PATRIOT EXCLUSIVE!
After missing his appointment with me last Friday, Florida Governor, Charlie Crist did show up today for my exclusive interview with him. You can listen to the whole thing RIGHT HERE.
Overall the Governor confirmed that he still thinks he was right to take the stimulus money; tried to take the Conservative ground from his rival, former Florida Speaker Marco Rubio and told us how he was optimistic that SunRail was going to make a profit (I had a laugh over that one!).
But perhaps the biggest surprise is that when I challenged him to debate Rubio on a special show that I will be hosting on 540 WFLA, he agreed to do so. This is the first time that the Governor has agreed to debate his political rival and we will be fixing a date as soon as we get into the New Year.
We clashed over how Government spending can lead to real jobs, Stimulus Two, unemployment (now at 11.5% in Florida - the highest in more than 30 years), free enterprise and particularly SunRail. I specifically asked him (twice!) about who will pay the Bill for SunRail when it's not being subsidised Federally and when it's losing money. The Governor was quite convinced that SunRail (and TriRail) were going to make a profit. "I'm an optimist," he said.
Governor Crist confirmed that he would lead the charge for offshore drilling in Florida as long as it's "far enough, clean enough and safe enough. Its the kind of thing that we have a duty to at least explore," he said.
He did side step my term limits question, saying he would be "open to that" when I asked him if he was willing to limit himself to two terms in the Senate if he were to be elected. He did say that he thought Florida's GOP candidate for Senate WOULD be a Conservative - and he said he was that Conservative. "I've been a Conservative my entire life in the role of Ronald Reagan."
Overall it was a lively interview and I am obviously grateful to the Governor for taking the time out to do it.
If you would like to comment on this blog, please e-mail me at simontalkshow@gmail.com
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"I'm an optimist"??? No, Charlie, you're a BS-imist.
ReplyDeleteNowhere does inter-urban high-speed rail, let alone slower-speed rail, cover its costs, except in some very specific extremely dense population centers outside the US that have sophisticated intra-urban street-rail networks to feed the inter-urban high-speed routes. Florida is not and will not become that type of population infrastructure in the reasonable lifetime of any rolling stock up and running by 2020.
From Orlando, I can drive to my FINAL DESTINATION anywhere in Florida -- not some mid-point where I then have to rent a car or hail a taxi -- in no more than 5 hours, maximum. Any-speed rail can't match that, unless, Charlie, you're going to extend the service to Key West.
Your attempt to push high-speed rail down taxpayers throats is akin to your efforts to push Greer into respectful acceptance by Republicans, and neither pitch is going to sell.
Can't wait for the upcoming debate between an optimist and an honest-ist.