When LeBron James announced he's heading back to Cleveland, most high-profile Floridians responded with understanding and gratitude for what he accomplished here. Gov. Rick Scott, of all people, was one of the lone exceptions.
In a cheap attack that's as insulting to Floridians' intelligence as it is completely idiotic, his campaign responded to the news by churning out an email and some tweets comparing LeBron James to Charlie Crist.
Just hours after LeBron announced his decision through an essay on Sports Illustrated's website, the Scott campaign got to work and sent out an email to supporters with a Photoshopped picture of Crist and James.
"What do these guys have in common?" the caption asked. "They both ran away."
The image was then posted by the Republican Party of Florida's official Twitter account.
Who knew @CharlieCrist and @KingJames would have so much in common? http://t.co/22Bdi5vu6B #sayfie #LeBron pic.twitter.com/8HsnhvPP62
— Florida GOP (@FloridaGOP) July 11, 2014James, of course, spent four years in Florida and took the Miami Heat to four NBA Finals in a row and won two of them. Crist spent four years as Florida's governor enjoying astoundingly high approval ratings throughout most of his term before deciding (with the support of the Republican establishment, which is now backing Scott) to make an ill-fated bid for the U.S. Senate.
Apparently, Scott's out-of-touch campaign totally misunderstood South Florida's character and assumed we'd all be painting LeBron as public enemy number one and decided to go hard with a cheap political attack.
The stunt proved to be more harmful to Scott's campaign than it was to Crist's.
Even prominent Republican operatives like Miami's Ana Navarro thought it was dumb.
It's lame. Lebron doesn't deserve such offensive comparison. @Only4RM: This is what @FloridaGOP up to: pic.twitter.com/0v5bEjJWU9 @ananavarro"
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) July 13, 2014Others on Twitter couldn't help but poke fun at the ridiculousness of the attack.
@FloridaGOP LeBron came to Florida under Crist, left under Scott. Not your best effort.
— Brendan Getzell (@RefsUnBrendans) July 11, 2014The tweet seems only more inexplicable when compared to a tweet from Marco Rubio, the guy who actually beat Crist in 2010.
Thank you to @KingJames for giving us 4 great years! Wish you much success back home in Ohio.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 11, 2014Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
