Obama's Bear-Hug Pizza Guy Hugs Charlie Crist

While at a Patrick Murphy fundraiser yesterday, Charlie Crist was asked about Scott Van Duzer's bear-hugging President Obama. And Crist expressed a strong desire to meet the man.

"You know what?" Crist responded. "I wanted to stop by the guy's... Where is his place?"

Crist, whose ousting from the Republican Party started with his hugging Obama in 2009, thinks he's been replaced as Florida's Bestest Hugger of the President and showed up at the pizza shop and told Van Duzer, "You know what I'm here for," and O MY GAAHH this is not going to help all the gay rumors!

"[Van Duzer's hug] puts mine to shame," he said.

So, Van Duzer went ahead and bear-hugged Charlie Crist, which somehow managed to look a trillion times more awkward than when he hugged Obama.

In 2009, Crist helped promote Van Duzer's nonprofit foundation's "Be a Hero for a Day" blood drive. But this was the first time the giant pizza guy had met the former governor in person.

"Nothing surprises me anymore after the president walked in," Van Duzer said.

Although Crist would probably tell people he just wanted to meet Van Duzer, who has suddenly become something of a celebrity, this might all be a ploy to get things started for a gubernatorial run in 2014.

Hey, Charlie Crist kicks off political changes with hugs, so this is the theory we're sticking with. Pretty good, right?

According to one poll, Crist trails Alex Sink among Democrats

Although the poll was taken before the DNC and the bear hug, so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, Crist will just keep going around pretending he's not a Democrat while stumping for Democrats and looking for people to hug.

---

---

Follow @ CleanPlateBPB