Crist made it clear that he's in full support of Florida accepting federal funding under Obamacare to expand Medicaid in the Sunshine State, so that more than 800,000 Floridians have access to life-saving and affordable health care.
Crist said that, "Rick Scott won't lift a finger to get it done, and I don't know why. Talk about all talk and no action: He said he supported it, [and] we don't have it."
Despite initially supporting the move, Scott maintained his current position on the issue, saying that he's against expanding Medicaid, and giving health insurance to hundreds of thousands of Floridians.
But again, this huge difference in opinion that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of people was overshadowed in our infotainment media by "fangate."
Towards the latter stages of the debate, Crist pointed out that Rick Scott has the dubious distinction of being CEO of the company when it committed one the largest Medicare and Medicaid frauds in US history.
During Scott's time as CEO of private health-care company Columbia/HCA, that company was fined a staggering $1.7 billion by the federal government, for the crimes -- the frauds -- they committed under Rick Scott's supervision.
Crist told the crowd that Scott was, "a guy who ran a company [that] had to pay the largest fine for fraud in the history of the United States of America."
He then addressed Scott directly, saying that, "Rick, this is also a fact: You plead the Fifth 75 times so you wouldn't have to answer questions about your involvement with it."
This pivotal moment of the debate, like all the others, was again overlooked by our "if it bleeds, it leads" media.
The real issues brought up last night have been ignored so much by our media that it's enough to make you think that Scott's "fangate" hissy fit was meant to divert attention away from what really matters, and to help him win a very tight race come Election Day.
And, oh by the way, Rick Scott has played this card in a debate before -- and it helped make him governor.
Back in 2010, Scott was locked in a tight and pretty much tied battle with Democrat Alex Sink. During a commercial break in their debate, Sink was handed a smartphone by an aide, and read a text message on the phone.
That violated the debate rules, because no electronics were allowed and the candidates weren't supposed to receive messages during the debate breaks.
Scott harped on the violation as the debate went on, totally taking away attention from the actual issues being debated.
The "electronic device" scandal became the big news story, and the media ignored the issues being debated. It got so hot that Alex Sink had to fire the person who brought her the phone, which fueled another round of media stories that didn't mention the issues.
And, surprise! A couple weeks later, Scott was elected governor of Florida.
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