MSNBC's Chris Matthews didn't appear to do any favors for Crist, either. In one key exchange, Matthews asked Crist, the state's chief law-enforcement official, why he kept claiming that crime was going down when murder was going up. "The only violent crime that's up is murder," Crist conceded. Matthews responded, "[T]hat's what Marion Barry used to say in D.C. when I was there. He'd say, 'Crime is down, but sorry, murder is up, the only exception.' To most people, murder is the big one."Recent polls show the Crist-Davis race increasingly competitive.In a rapid-paced hour, Republican front-runner Charlie Crist frequently found himself ganged up on by Reform Party candidate Linn and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Davis. And, thanks to Washington-based moderator Chris Matthews, Crist for the first time in the debates was put in the position of defending an unpopular president and the war in Iraq.Linn and Davis both gave President Bush a grade of F for his performance in office, mirroring poor approval ratings nationally and in Florida. Crist, the state attorney general, gave him a B.Davis and Linn criticized Crist's plan to cut property taxes for homeowners by doubling the homestead exemption. Linn used strident language that suggested Crist did not understand the issue.And when Crist trotted out a favorite line that Davis' record of missed votes in Congress during his campaign for governor showed that he worked from "an empty chair," Linn said he agreed about the chair, but then called Crist "an empty suit."
--Steve Benen, (crossposted on Midterm Madness)