Just when you think that you’re out, he pulls you back in:
In an about-face, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is considering running for the Republican nomination for president, according to the New York Post and NewsMax.com.
“Huge pressure from high-ranking Republicans and fund-raisers” is making Christie consider the possibility, however, a source told the Post. “He’ll decide this week.”
I really do try, in general, to get into the heads of those I disagree with and see things from their perspective. I don’t think I’m great at it—no one is, really—but I do think I’m better at it than many others, especially when it comes to politics.
But for the life of me I cannot figure out why Chris Christie is being regarded as some kind of savior for the GOP.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I understand that he appeals to the significant chunk of the GOP electorate that swoons for a swaggering, tough-talking, bruising white ethnic macho man. Christie speaks to those in the GOP who still see themselves as representatives of hardworking, middle class, no BS America. The party of Archie Bunker. These are the people who were never so happy with Bush as they were in the months following 9/11, when he seemingly was dying for someone—anyone—to give him an excuse to bomb half the world and bitch-slap a high-profle liberal to boot. It’s a very male appeal for an overwhelmingly male party.
But how do we get from “I think Chris Christie is a badass” to “I think Chris Christie has a better chance of winning the 2012 election that Mitt Romney”? He’s unpopular in his own state, which, by the way, he’s been Governor of for about as long as Sarah Palin in Alaska. He has a record of shaky ethics. There’s undoubtedly more than enough video online and elsewhere of him berating one working class woman, usually a teacher, after another to portray him as a mean-spirited, blustering bully. And, well, he’s obese—and let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a reason politics has been called showbiz for ugly people.
A lot of talk has circulated in the wake of Perry’s entering the race to the effect of GOP voters being too radical, too cloistered, to understand that their vision of paradise differs from the general electorate’s. Will Republicans blow it in 2012?, etc. And while I can see how this popped-up with Perry, considering his statements on Social Security and his Bush-y mannerisms, the groundswell around Christie seems to me to stand as even starker evidence that the party’s gone off-the-rails.
It’s as if the Republican powers-that-be can no longer distinguish between what’s best for Roger Ailes and what’s best for their party.
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