Charlie Crist's embrace of Barack Obama is the the latest evidence that political PDAs can be career-killers. When a hug becomes a kiss of death

Charlie Crist is getting killed by a hug.

The Republican governor is being bombarded with images of him hugging President Barack Obama when he was in Florida to pitch his $787 billion economic stimulus plan earlier this year.


In just the past two weeks, that hug has appeared in an ad by the conservative Club for Growth attacking Crist, in a Democratic National Committee e-mail highlighting his recent assertion that he actually didn’t “endorse” the stimulus bill and in headlines all over Florida, including one Wednesday that read: “Charlie Crist needs to figure out a way to undo a hug.”

It will only get worse.

“These kinds of images can be deadly,” said Republican strategist Mark McKinnon. “Circumstances and context don’t matter. People impose their own meaning and interpretations. And it’s impossible to undo.”

It is one of the oldest and simplest forms of affection. It’s spanned cultures and religions and gone without stigma for generations. In politics, though, it’s never that simple. And as people, and politicians, have become more comfortable with the hug — particularly the “man hug” (always with a handshake in between to keep the chests from touching) — a downside of this friendly gesture has emerged.

Crist, who until recently maintained untouchable approval ratings, is now getting a taste of what a string of politicians over the past decade have learned the hard way: You’ve got to watch whom you hug.

In other words, political PDAs can be career killers.

Sometimes the hug comes and goes ( Hillary Clinton and Yasser Arafat’s wife). Other times, it becomes such a fixture in a campaign that it indelibly labels a candidate (John McCain and George W. Bush).

The hug is most dangerous when it reinforces a narrative that’s already resonating with voters.

Take Crist. It’s not only that his Obama hug feeds into the widespread distrust of him among conservative Florida Republicans and allows his U.S. Senate primary opponent, Marco Rubio, to paint him as a liberal. Crist’s bipartisan embrace also comes at a time when there is a mounting effort among some in the GOP to drive out Republican candidates who aren’t seen as conservative enough.

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane called Crist’s bipartisan hug a “twofer.”

“This hurts him,” he said.

Roger Handberg, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, put it more starkly: “What’s Charlie Crist’s hug of Obama going to do for him?” he asked. “Probably get him defeated.”

Handberg predicted that Rubio will “beat him to death with the picture.”

The hug attack is fairly new. That it exists at all indicates a cultural shift. As Lehane noted, it’s hard to imagine John F. Kennedy publicly hugging fellow politicians, as the macho cast of the HBO series “Entourage” does.

Crist has tried to shrug off the hug. “I’m a civil guy,” he explained when the gesture started to creep up as an issue.

But civil translates in civics, not in politics, where spontaneous moments of seemingly innocuous public displays of affection can come back to haunt someone.

In the past few election cycles, the hug has done its share of damage.

Ned Lamont was a political novice in 2006 when he ran a successful primary challenge against Sen. Joe Lieberman that was essentially based on the image of the veteran Connecticut Democrat being embraced by President George W. Bush after the 2005 State of the Union address. Bush even appeared to give Lieberman a peck on the cheek.

Lieberman’s embrace of the embattled Republican president played into the already-prevailing notion that he was out of touch with his liberal New England constituents.

Lamont supporters distributed a campaign button showing the moment, labeling it “the kiss.” After former President Bill Clinton campaigned in Connecticut for Lieberman, the senator’s camp made a button showing Clinton with his arm around Lieberman, labeling it “the hug.” And Lieberman held on to win as an independent.

But even embracing the wrong politician during a better time can be deadly. And Crist needs to look no further than his home state to see the hazards of a hug.

McCain’s embrace of Bush at a rally in Pensacola, Fla., in 2004 was meant to signal that the two former rivals had buried the hatchet after their bitter 2000 primary. But the moment was so awkward and strained that it seemed less than believable.

Then, in 2008, the Bush-McCain hug was splashed on billboards and in television ads. Just before the Republican National Convention last year, a Democratic Party spokesman said the image was a key part of a plan to “spend every day looking for every opportunity” to draw the connection between McCain and Bush. It certainly didn’t help McCain with independent voters who were down on Bush — and who flocked to Obama in the election.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tried to leverage a Bush hug to his advantage.

Struggling for reelection in South Dakota, Daschle used the image of Bush embracing him on the Senate floor in 2001 to help him among conservatives. “Daschle: Time to Unite Behind Troops, Bush” read the headline above the image in his television ad. He still lost.

Dick Gephardt’s 2004 presidential campaign was done in by a hug from Bush. The former House majority leader recently told The Wall Street Journal: “The Howard Dean campaign ran multiple TV ads with me hugging George W. Bush, and I never recovered from that with liberal primary voters.”

There are instances when candidates overcome a perilous embrace.

One Bush-hug survivor, Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, was able to fend off a primary challenge even though his opponent played up a photograph of Bush embracing Cuellar while he stood on the Republican side of the aisle during the State of the Union.

New York Republicans hit Hillary Clinton during the 2000 Senate campaign for her hug and kiss of Suha Arafat, the wife of the late Palestinian leader, after Arafat gave a speech in the West Bank attacking Israel. “While Israel sacrifices for peace, Arafat spreads hatred and lies — and Hillary embraces her,” said one ad aimed at turning New York’s sizable Jewish population against Clinton.

But Clinton was able to push past it because she had a long record of supporting Israel. And once the criticism started coming, Clinton became adamantly more pro-Israel — and was elected to the Senate.

So far, Crist’s embrace of Obama appears to be having an impact. Rubio has seen an uptick in fundraising, and Crist is already running campaign ads a year before the election.

The question for the Republican governor is: Can he live it down?

“Charlie’s very vulnerable at this stage,” Handberg said. “You know, a picture’s worth 1,000 words. ... It’s highlighting all of his weaknesses.”

But if there’s one universal truth about the hug, it’s that circumstances change.

If Crist survives the Republican primary, the hug may reappear — in his own ads.