Veteran political analyst and author Dick Morris tells Newsmax that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is so far behind his rival for the Republican nomination for the Senate that he will drop out of the race before election day.
Morris also says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” with House Democrats to win support for what Morris calls a “utopian socialized medicine scheme.”
A frequent Newsmax contributor and Fox News Channel commentator, political consultant Morris has handled the winning campaigns of more than 30 senators and governors.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, he notes that former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio now leads Gov. Crist by more than 30 percentage points, according to a recent poll. Asked if Rubio will win the GOP nomination and can he win the general election, Morris responds: “Yes and yes. I also think Crist is going to pull out because he can’t survive a 30-point defeat and still serve as governor.
For Crist “to lose a Republican primary, when he’s the sitting Republican governor, by two to one or more would effectively disenfranchise him as governor. It would be tantamount to making him a lame duck.
“He could run for re-election, but if he can’t win even a decent vote share in his own party’s primary, I don’t think he can stay on as governor.
“And hats off to Rubio for running a heck of a campaign. Absolutely I think he’s going to walk in in November.”
Morris says he doesn’t believe Speaker Pelosi has the votes right now to pass President Obama’s healthcare reform plan, and her struggle to win votes “is hand-to-hand combat, congressional district by district. It really amounts to the people against Pelosi because each congressman is being pressured by Pelosi but being pressured the other way by the people of his district.”
A Rasmussen poll reveals that 78 percent of Americans believe it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will have to be raised on the middle class to cover the cost of healthcare reform. Whether constituents can put enough pressure on members of Congress to stop Obamacare “depends on the people who are watching this video,” Morris declares.
“You need to go on dickmorris.com. There’s a list of 30 congressmen who could go either way, all of whom voted yes last time. I have their district numbers and their Washington numbers. Get on the phone and call them, then go to the left side of the site, click on the League of American Voters and give us money to run ads in their districts pressuring them.”
The League is now on the air with ads in 18 of the 30 congressional districts and is shooting ads for the remaining 12. When the ads are running in all 30 districts, “this is going to be a major, major offensive,” says Morris, whose latest book is "Catastrophe: How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests Are Transforming a Slump into a Crash, Freedom Into Socialism, and a Disaster into a Catastrophe . . . and How to Fight Back."
“What we’re trying to do is drill down to each of these House districts, and run ads in those districts putting the congressman on the spot and putting his number on the screen. I think this is having a tremendous effect.”
Morris agrees that Obama and many Democrats are “hypocritical” in continually vilifying health insurance companies, which stand to profit tremendously from Obamacare by gaining 30 million new customers when the uninsured have to be covered.
“Obama is being completely disingenuous in attacking the insurance companies,” Morris says.
“All of us agree that if a stand-alone bill came before the United States Congress that required insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions, banned them from dropping people or raising their rates when they become sick, prohibited lifetime caps, and permitted interstate competition, it would pass overwhelmingly. I would support that bill in a heartbeat.
“So by identifying three of those four provisions — he’s not for the interstate stuff — as being essential to his bill, he’s being disingenuous. Everybody’s for that. It’s the rest of the utopian socialized medicine scheme in his bill that we all object to.”
New York Rep. Eric Massa, facing a harassment complaint from a male staffer, resigned from the House on March 8. He was one of 39 Democrats who voted against an earlier version of the healthcare bill, and Morris believes he was pressured by leading Democrats into stepping down quickly so he wouldn’t be able to cast another no vote against healthcare reform.
Morris also commented about President Obama’s waning support among voters under age 30 — 70 percent supported Obama in the 2008 election but now only 54 percent give him a favorable rating.
“There are those of us who oppose the healthcare bill because of the cuts, there are those who oppose it because of the deficit. But then there are a whole group of Democrats who say this is the wrong issue. We want him to focus on jobs and the economy, not on some utopian healthcare scheme.
“I think that’s what is undermining him among young people.”
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