Posted on 11/08/2012 4:58:29 PM PST by Zhang Fei
Once again, Barack Obama has proven to be the luckiest politician alive.
Just when the race was tightening to a dead heat in the election’s closing days, one spectacular betrayal and one rank miscalculation on the Republican side have turned the contest back in Obama’s favor.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who will tour his storm-ravaged state today with President Obama, was all over the networks Tuesday telling what a wonderful leader his president was.
“I spoke to the president three times yesterday,” Christie boasted, calling Obama “outstanding.” When Fox co-host Steve Doocy meekly asked Christie if he planned any events with Romney, Christie snarkily replied, “I have no idea nor am I the least bit concerned or interested.”
Christie’s caper, of course, is so opportunist that it almost makes Mitt Romney look principled—almost. What a swell party of back-stabbers is our GOP.
For Christie, who is up for re-election next year in a blue state, this caper accomplishes three things: It portrays him as a bipartisan; provides extensive publicity in service of his image as a good leader in a crisis; and hoses away Mitt Romney, the better to position Christie for a presidential run in 2016.
Of course, if Christie thinks he has a snowball’s chance of being the Republican nominee, he is delusional. Republicans will never forgive Christie for this act of high treason. Assuming Romney loses, the 2016 nomination belongs to Paul Ryan, probably by acclamation. Christie has a better shot at being appointed by Obama to head FEMA.
(Excerpt) Read more at prospect.org ...
Christie should run against SlowJoe and H! in the ‘rat primaries.
Christie and Bloomberg are not Rudy Giuliani in a crisis, that’s for sure. Both were trying to be but failed miserably. I hope they both die a slow political death.
EVERY TIME I think of this, I cannot but help going back to Florida Governor Charles Crist, who also gave a bear hug to Obama (although Crist may have been after more than just some bank, if you know what I mean).
Crist then tried to convince the REPUBLICANS that he was one of them. He failed BIG TIME, and Senator Rubio is starting his third year in office.
There is NO WAY that the base (i.e., Tea Party) is going to be fooled here - Christie is TOAST, there is the Internet, along with many, many, pictures. To Romney’s credit (one of the few things he did right at the end), his people tried to stop the photo-op, but Christie would not stand for it.
Eva Braun gave Hitler HUGE LEGITIMACY in Germany, given her artistic talents before she became his babe. Christie did the same with Obama, less than a week before the election. I realize that his job is to look out for NJ, but he also “claims” to be a Republican, and he sided with the enemy here.
People will remember...and remember very, very, well.
Guess what, Gallup, Rasmussen, and ABC polls had Mitt up by 5 to 6% with a week left then Ms. Krispy Donut showed up.
I heard Coulter call Cristie a “fat b.a.s.t.a.r.d.” on Glen Beck.
Kuttner’s a moron. Chris Christie had no future in Republican politics outside of New Jersey, and the evidence weighs heavily against any claims that he had a tangible impact on the 2012 presidential election. Most notable is the fact that the few polls that showed Romney with a consistent small lead (Gallup, for example) turned out to be completely incorrect in their Democrat/Republican turnout models.
P.S. This piece was written on 10/31/12, and the statements made in it have been debunked by more current information that has come out since then.
This article is goofy. Kuttner is on crack.
Hey, guess what ... it turns out that Gallup and Rasmussen were oversampling Republicans. The final turnout split ended up being something like +6 in favor of the Democrats.
Also, keep in mind that some states had more than 40% of their votes cast during early voting -- and Obama outperformed Romney in most early voting. A lot of those votes were cast long before Halloween.
Has Ann Coulter said anything about her hero? I haven’t heard a word.
Sorry, but I just cannot see how Christie manages to run as a Democrat. It’s personal, the hatred between Christie and the school teachers, they will NEVER support him, and if they don’t support him, he’s not making it to November 2013...simply cannot happen.
I DESPISE Christie for throwing a life-line to Obama at the very end, but he will still NEVER be trusted by Democrats, as he has SERIOUS problems (like wanting kids to get educated). Not a prayer.
I don’t think Christie could be blamed for a 2.5 million drop in republican votes, but his behavior and attitude didn’t help.
Eva Braun? You mean Leni Riefenstahl. It is a pity she used her great beauty and artistic talents to such an effort. And unlike heavyweight champion, Max Schmeling, she did not save any Jews.
I've defended Christie here several times. I never thought he was a true conservative, but I thought he had his place in the northeastern GOP.
Boy, was I wrong. I bet Mitt's head is still spinning from this betrayal. Christie's future will be interesting to watch. He might well win another term as governor because of his relative fiscal discipline [I stress "relative",] but his future in national politics is dead.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
FEMA resources are automatically released on a non-partisan basis. Obama's photo op was completely unnecessary, and took up resources for security and so on that could have been used for disaster relief. Bush decided not to visit Katrina-hit areas early on because he did not want everyone rushing around on his account, taking away from rescue efforts. Note that neither Cuomo nor Bloomberg gave Obama his photo op, understanding that getting it together was more trouble than it was worth.
What Christie SHOULD have done is that he should have made a public show of inviting both Obama AND Romney to come and tour the state together. It would have still shown Christie to be a pragmatic leader who could reach across the aisle. In fact, it would have shown him as someone who could bring left and right together, because both candidates would have been almost forced to take him up on it. Instead, he stuck a knife in Romney’s back and twisted it.
Here you go.
"Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday complained that the United States was the “shallowest country in the history of man” because exit polls showed that people considered Hurricane Sandy an important factor in the presidential race.
On the morning after President Barack Obama won re-election, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy noted that Hurricane Sandy had been the “October surprise,” with 42 percent of people saying that the storm response was an important issue and 15 percent saying it was the most important issue."
-end snip-
Now what were the margins in the swings states? They were pretty thin gruel for an Obama win. Ms. Chritie likely made the difference.
What I'm hearing is that for the voters in the middle who decide elections, party affiliation is highly fluid. If they think they're gonna vote for Romney, they'll say they're Republicans. On a different day, when Obama's looking good, they'll say they're Democrats. That's why we get these big swings - not because of sampling error, but because not everyone's a die-hard party member.
“What Christie SHOULD have done is that he should have made a public show of inviting both Obama AND Romney to come and tour the state together.”
With all due respect (and I mean it), this was not the time for anyone CLAIMING to be a Republican to give Obama ANY respect. There would be plenty of time AFTER the election.
With roles reversed, not only would a Democrat Governor not invite a Republican Prez, he would be all over the news blaming his policies for the damage.
This is why the Republicans have such a tough time winning - they are simply unable to play by the rules that are set by their enemies, the Democrats. Until they can FIGURE THAT OUT, they will be outsmarted, non-stop.
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