MSNBC's Todd, Guthrie Urge Democrat Meek to Quit Florida Senate Race

October 11th, 2010 10:16 AM

Well, they did stop short of presenting him with a ceremonial seppuku sword . . .

But other than that, MSNBC's Daily Rundown duo of Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie did their best to convince Florida Dem Kendreck Meek to get out of the senatorial race to give Charlie Crist a shot against Marco Rubio.

Todd tried the cold-hard-numbers route, while Guthrie made an emotional appeal, literally asking Meek if he "can live" with himself if his continued candidacy resulted in the election of Rubio.  View video here.

 

CHUCK TODD: The math is just daunting, Congressman between the two of you, I mean, the Republican party is united around Marco Rubio. At this point Gov. Crist is maybe getting 15% of the Republican vote.  That means Marco Rubio is getting 85%.  In a three-way race, that's a done deal. It's over. That's 42 to 45% of the overall vote in the State of Florida. So at what point do you sit there with Gov. Crist, and at some point, I mean: what is more important, sort of making a point and trying to finish second between the two of you, or is it more important to try to prevent Marco Rubio from winning?

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SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: If you stay in this race, and ultimately that means the vote is split on the Democratic side and Rubio wins, can you live with your role in that?

KENDRICK MEEK: [Wry laugh] That's interesting, Savannah, that you would say that.  Again, I would say that I am nominated by hundreds of thousands of voters in this state.  Charlie Crist walked down to the Supervisor of Elections office and became an independent because he wanted to get out of the kitchen with Marco Rubio.