Charlie Crist Getting Hitched

By David Knowles
Jul 4th 2008 9:09AM

Filed Under:eRepublicans, John McCain, Featured Stories, Veepstakes

Greetings from Florida, where our governor, Charlie Crist, has just announced his plans to wed his girlfriend of nine months. Crist, who is 51 years old, has been single for the past 30 years. His first marriage ended after less than a year, giving way to a three-decade-long stint as a bachelor. His fiancé, Carole Rome, 38, is the president of (no kidding) a Halloween costume business.

Why does any of this deserve your consideration? Well, timing, for one thing. It's no secret that Crist is on McCain's short-list for Vice President, and, oddly, marital status seems to be something of a sticking point in the race to be number 2. In fact, America has not had an unmarried Vice President since 1852, when Franklin Pierce gave the nod to William King.

No date has yet been set for the wedding, and while the sound of church bells setting the mood for the Republican Convention in St. Paul may simply be a coincidence, some wonder if this marriage itself is not, in some ways, its own kind of costume.

Andrew Sullivan:

After nine months' dating, he gets married to a woman. I wonder if that was a condition of the vice-presidency. His parents, by the way, are "ecstatic." I'd say the odds of his becoming the veep--and McCain's heir apparent--just increased exponentially.

Ken Layne:

Orange-skinned Florida "bachelor 4 life" Charlie Crist is the latest in Florida's long line of moderate Republican politicians who live swinging, middle-aged male lives without women. But he apparently really wants to lose with John McCain this fall, so he has announced the impending tinkle of little wedding bells!

The Economist:

Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida and possible vice-presidential candidate, has been a bachelor for nearly 30 years, sparking rumors that he might be gay. But it seems that the talk of the Green Iguana is wrong.

Like all Vice Presidential prognostication, speculating on whether or not political considerations played a roll in Crist's decision to pop the question amounts to little more than a parlor game. Would Crist's bachelor status have hurt the hypothetical ticket so much as to cost them the election that is still five months away? Inquiring minds, start your engines!

As the Economist points out, two things are certain about Florida and Crist. First, Barack Obama is closing the Sunshine State gap with John McCain. Second, religious conservatives don't care much for Charlie. Both campaigns are fighting tooth-and-nail now for moderate voters, and on that score, at least, Charlie Crist doesn't need a disguise.

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