Source: Charlie Crist to run as an independent

Via Dan Riehl
All signs today pointed to the possibility on Thursday, now Fox News 35 is a reporting a source inside the Crist campaign has said Crist will announce on Friday he will run as an independent:

Dr. Rick Foglesong is the President of the faculty at Rollins College, one of our political analysts who has time and time again predicted a run by the governor as an independent. And now, he says he has a source inside the Crist campaign staff.

Dr. Foglesong said, "A person I know in the Charlie Crist campaign has told me Charlie Crist would veto the merit pay bill, and he did. Further, he said he would announce tomorrow, that's Friday, that he would run as an independent."

Fox 35's Tracy Jacim asked, "Where is this supposed to happen?" Dr. Foglesong said, "South Florida." Jacim asks, "Miami?" Foglesong said, "Yes." Jacim asks, "How reliable is this source?" Foglesong replied, "I trust the source."

Fox 35 contacted the Crist campaign staff by e-mail, and they would neither confirm nor deny this claim, and expressed surprise we were asking.

But a new Quinnipiac poll of 1,250 registered republicans offers support to the theory. It shows the governor badly trailing former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in the GOP primary with only 33 percent of the vote to Rubio's 56 percent.

Fox News was not able to find a campaign event for Crist in Miami today, nor did that seem to be the most convincing portion of Dr. Foglesong's statement.    Senator John Cornyn commented on the potential for a Crist independent run saying, "I would think that would be the end of his political career as a Republican, so I doubt that will happen. " Whether Crist will attempt a career-ending run as an independent remains to be seen.  Senator Cornyn and the NRSC own this fiasco, however.   If Crist runs as an independent, he won't be the only one facing the backlash of an angry mob.

A Bad Time to be a Democrat

While Rasmussen has been showing Republicans in the lead on the Congressional Ballot for some time, today Gallup shows a 4 point edge for Republicans as well.  Gallup sampled 894 registered voters which generally produces results that lean towards the Democrats, to find Republicans leading 48% to 44% for Democrats.  The most startling finding in this poll, Republicans gained a full 22 point preference among Independents:

Party like it's 1994! There is every reason to party if you're a Republican, as Byron York points out in The Washington Examiner:

It's an extraordinary turnaround for the GOP. Last July, Democrats held a six-point lead. Last December, Democrats held a 15-point lead. At one point in 2007, Democrats held a 23-point lead, and for all of that year, 2007, Democrats held a double-digit lead.

The new Republican lead is the result of a dramatic move of independents toward the Republican party. In the new poll, according to Gallup, the GOP leads among independents, 52 percent to 30 percent -- whopping 22-point margin. Last month, the Republican lead among independents was just nine points, and in July, the GOP lead was a single point. So among independents, the Republican lead has gone from one point to 22 points in less than six months -- with much of lead accumulating in the last month.

Will Democrats continue to bury their heads in the sand and continue to pursue a left-wing agenda that is clearly losing the confidence of the all important Independent voters?  Harry Reid answers "full steam ahead," as he plans to take the yet unwritten Senate health care bill to the floor next week.  Do we get to read the invisible bill or is that too much to ask?

H/T:  and many more reactions at Memeorandum.