Charlie Crist’s having a rough stretch. Florida’s governor is seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate and finding opponent Marco Rubio much tougher than expected in a race that isn’t volatile so much as manic-depressive, with Crist having both led and trailed by over 30 points in the polls. Crist has been deemed too liberal by much of the party base, putting a man who once fancied himself a future President on the verge of a likely career-ending defeat. Oh, and many people believe he’s secretly gay.

Most notably in the documentary Outrage, a circumstantial but often convincing case has been made that Crist is a homosexual. In a perfect world, this would be no one’s business. In this world, it matters to pretty much everyone. It matters to people on the right, because they think his sexual orientation can’t help but influence his views. In matters to people on the left, because they think a closeted politician must overcompensate to seem so unfriendly to gay interests that no will even consider he’s one of those people. At a time like this, Crist could use a little help. He may regret getting it.

Crist won the endorsement of Colonel Bud Day. The good news? He’s a Medal of Honor winner who spent years in captivity with John McCain in Vietnam (as well as a Swift Boater, which should help Crist shore up those conservative credentials). The bad? Here’s one of the reasons for his embrace of Crist over his Cuban opponent: “You know, we just got through (electing) a politician who can run his mouth at Mach 1, a black one, and now we have a Hispanic who can run his mouth at Mach 1…You’ve got the black one with the reading thing. He can go as fast as the speed of light and has no idea what he’s saying. I put Rubio in that same category, except I don’t know if he’s using one of those readers.”

I don’t know if Day’s racist — in fairness, he did acknowledge Obama can read, which is more credit than bigots often give — but I can say, with all due respect to his service to our nation, he’s a schmuck. Does he really think Dubya used to get up at a State of the Union and just wing it? (All right, there were a few moments when he might have been…) Does he think our politicians actually write most of the speeches themselves? Of course they don’t, and it’s no secret (witness Peggy Noonan’s bio identifying her as Bush the Elder’s  “chief speechwriter”, which indicates that not only did this extremely white man not come up with his own words, but that he had multiple people doing it for him).

Back in 1987, Los Angeles Dodgers GM Al Campanis gave an infamous interview on why African-Americans received so few opportunities in the front office by observing, “It’s just that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager.” This was hateful and, more importantly, flat-out wrong, with Cito Gaston managing the Toronto Blue Jays to back-to-back World Series titles and Bob Watson serving as GM both for a Yankee World Series win and the U.S. Olympic team’s upset gold medal victory in 2000. These opinions aren’t voiced too frequently any more in the sporting world — though things can get a little uncomfortable when the words “black quarterback” are uttered — and it’s pathetic they’re still heard in the political arena.

Most depressingly, Crist has accepted this support without qualification. I don’t think Crist needs to distance himself completely from Day — again, the man bravely served our nation and I’m sure many of his personal opinions aren’t equal measures ignorant and despicable — but Crist should at least say, “In this one instance, I disagree with him.” Crist has simply issued a statement that “Everyone has a right to their analysis and how they think somebody performs in office.” Everyone does have a right to their analysis, but sometimes the analysis is indefensible (if Day had praised Osama bin Laden for apparently being able to speak without a teleprompter — I assume they’re relatively scarce in Tora Bora — would Crist have been equally open-minded?). And we thought Florida was an embarrassment in 2000.

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