So even Florida Gov. Charlie Crist should realize by now that he's toast in the GOP.
A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio with a towering 18-point lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in the 2010 GOP Senate primary.
Rubio takes 54 percent to Crist's 36 percent, with 7 percent in the poll undecided. Another Rasmussen survey last month showed Rubio leading by 13 points.
It's not just Ras showing this surge. All public polling has captured Rubio's steady climb to frontrunner status against Crist, who is still a popular governor. But in a closed Florida Republican primary, he's toast.
Crist has appeared impervious to that reality the past few months, but this suggests that may be changing:
Crist: Stimulus Has Created Jobs, I Don't Regret Hugging Obama
Florida Governor Charlie Crist won't win over many of his conservative critics with his latest move -- declaring emphatically that the president's stimulus has created tens of thousands of jobs in his state and expressing "not one iota" of regret for working with Obama (indeed, hugging him) on the jobs-creating proposal.
If he wants to survive in politics, switching is his only hope. What's more, I'd welcome him into my party.
Here's the bottom line: there are only two people who can win that seat -- Crist and Rubio. I'd much rather it be the former, and Crist ain't gonna do it as a Republican.