When the nation’s largest solar electric generating plant goes online outside a small, sun-baked Florida town this week, Pres. Barack Obama will be there to herald the dawn of a new era of energy production. The state’s governor, Charlie Crist, made a name for himself as the “green governor” in his first two years of office, staging an annual environmental summit where P.R.’s own correspondent, Buck Banks blogged live. So naturally you’d expect Charlie, who would push your paraplegic mother out of the way if she were blocking his photo op, to be there smiling for the cameras and taking credit for Florida’s accomplishment.

But you’d be wrong. The hot button issues from two or three years ago are today’s nuclear meltdown issues, if you’re a Republican. Back then, Charlie was against oil drilling off the Florida coastline. Today, he thinks it could be a great idea. Back then, Charlie wanted to be seen as a moderate good guy in contrast to his predecessor Jeb Bush, who wore his partisan condescension like a white silk tux. Today, with a primary challenger for U.S. Senate whose conservative creds are his selling point, Crist echoes tough rightwing stands. His campaign web site (ironically a clone of the Obama formula) doesn’t even mention the environment among its list of “Issues.” Instead, a page shows Charlie in his red, white, and blue tie with a double American flag lapel pin pumping his fist in the air and looking generally tough, or as tough as a closeted gay guy whose whole life is a lie but is playing the role of the strong, patriotic Senator-to-be can look.

Today, Charlie’s big issues are:

• Better Health Care
• Defend Our Second Amendment Rights
• Education
• Protect Our Family Values
• Stronger America
• Tough on Crime

No doubt research revealed these are the issues today’s tea baggers care about, and today’s Charlie needs to harp on them, while staying as far away from the president as he can. Still, Obama-haters aren’t letting go of Crist’s past.

Conservative voters, who make up the core of Republican primary elections, are still fuming that Crist appeared with Obama in February to promote the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant. Appearing as a leader on climate change issues or glad-handing with Obama are out of the question now, Johnson said.

“Being seen with him again would be a nail in the coffin,” Johnson said.

To repair the damage, Crist is running radio ads on conservative stations in which he now blasts Obama for all of the federal spending.

“Enough is enough,” Crist says in one of the ads. “That’s my message to President Obama. We can’t spend our way into prosperity or tax our way into growth.”

So is anyone buying the new Charlie? His Republican primary challenger, former State House Speaker Marco Rubio, sure isn’t.

Rubio, who was in Sarasota two weeks ago to speak to a local Republican Club, has made Crist’s change of emphasis a key part of his stump speech.

“The biggest problem in American politics today are people that will be whatever you want them to be,” Rubio said. “‘What do the polls say? That’s what I’ll be for.’”

Ouch. Crist, malleable and amenable as he is, will have his hardest time during this campaign spinning away the truth — and when it comes to exposing Charlie’s raw ambition, Rubio definitely has the truth on his side.