Charlie Crist was a rising Republican star whose endorsement was coveted in the run-up to FLorida’s 2008 GOP presidential primary. He threw his support behind John McCain the weekend before the primary, helping McCain win Florida and effectively clinch the GOP nomination.

Four years later, Crist is a GOP pariah — but his name is hot again in the week before the Republican primary. Newt Gingrich suggested GOP establishment favorite Mitt Romney is like Crist, whose moderate brand of Republicanism fell from favor in 2010 and led Crist to bolt the GOP to pursue a failed Senate bid against Florida’s new rising Republican star, Marco Rubio.

PostOnPolitics caught up with Crist today and asked how he feels about having his name bandied about before the primary.

“What’s up with that?” Crist said. “Maybe that matters to some people. It sure doesn’t matter to me. I mean, I can’t even vote in the Republican primary. I’m an independent.”

Crist, who attended Monday night’s GOP debate in Tampa, said the race has been “anything but dull,” but he declined to offer any specific observations on the 2012 candidates or the GOP race.

“You know what? I am going to hesitate to inject myself into the primary,” Crist said. “I’ll let the candidates handle their own campaigns.”

Tags: gop2012

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 5:54 pm and is filed under 2012 campaigns, Charlie Crist, George Bennett, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.