A day after the former Republican governor of Florida announced in an op-ed that he was endorsing Obama, Charlie Crist added Monday that he will speak at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. In the op-ed he penned in the Tampa Bay Times Sunday, Crist wrote that he stands by Obama's "vision of a future built by a strong and confident middle class." Florida Republican Party chairman Lenny Curry called the endorsement an effort for Crist—who left the GOP in 2010 to run as an independent in Florida's Senate primary—to "shed his skin for a political comeback." Crist, once popular among Republicans, fell out of favor after supporting Obama's economic stimulus efforts in 2009, The New York Times points out. In 2010 he lost his Senate run against Marco Rubio, who will introduce Mitt Romney at the Republican convention Thursday.
