Good idea.
Posted on 01/21/2014 2:58:12 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Republican Party put all of their 2016 eggs in the Christie basket. Now the basket has George Washington Bridge size hole, Hillary Clinton has opened up an 8 point lead and Republicans are panicking.
The first whiff of GOP panic came from a recent New York Times story,
Of all the new realities that Mr. Christie must confront, perhaps the most humbling is a sense of losing the momentum that surrounded him just a few months ago. Last year, the governor’s staff had begun building up his foreign policy bona fides, quietly reaching out to Brian H. Hook, a Republican foreign policy expert who worked at the United Nations for President George W. Bush, and started planning his international trip.
Asked whether the trip is still on, Mr. Christie’s adviser William J. Palatucci responded: “It’s all to be determined.”
Inside the Republican Party, the once constant talk of Mr. Christie’s path to the White House has quieted. “I think anything about a 2016 deal, at this point, is on the back burner,” said Ray Washburne, the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The panic grew after Christie’s disastrous fundraising trip to Florida, where instead of moving on from the scandals, he was so besieged that he had to hide out and avoid the media and the public.
The results of the latest Quinnipiac poll should turn the panic into a full blown inferno as Hillary Clinton has opened up an eight point lead on Christie. The December Quinnipiac poll was one the few that was friendly to the Republican cause, so the GOP has been beating this poll into the ground. But the January poll revealed that Christie is being immensely damaged by the scandals.
Christie went from being in a statistical tie with Clinton last month to trailing the former Sec. of State 46%-38% today. The scandals are destroying Christie with Independents. He has gone from leading Clinton 47%-32% to trailing 41%-40%. The percentage of respondents who think that he would make a good president has plunged from 49% in December to 35% today.
Republicans know that they don’t have another candidate that come close to Clinton in any way. The same Quinnipiac poll shows Clinton leading Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Jeb Bush all by double digits. The Republican establishment is behind Christie. The big Republican money is behind Christie. The RNC changed the party’s nominating process to benefit Christie, and now the New Jersey governor is being undone by scandals that highlight his temperament issues.
Christie’s image and reputation are being severely damaged by these scandals. His brand as a blue collar, tough talking governor who gets things done has been replaced by the image of a petty vindictive bully. Once a candidate has been negatively defined for the electorate, it is nearly impossible to change that image. It is this reality that Republicans have yet to face.
Chris Christie is damaged goods just like Mitt Romney was damaged goods. The Republican establishment may go through with their plan to nominate Christie. If they do, they will find out that it doesn’t matter how the investigations turn out. The damage has already been done, and Republicans may end up stuck with another fatally flawed candidate who has virtually no chance of winning.
The idea of Christie beating Clinton has always seemed like a dubious Republican pipe dream, but never did the GOP think that they would be spending 2014 watching their only viable candidate go up in smoke.
0bama, the libs and Demorats have already ruined the US. Can Hillary do any thing worse?
Christie will probably wind up being Hillary’s running mate.
All the more reason to shake the tree. Reagan won because he was popular and had a pro American message. He defeated the left and the GOPe. It can be done again with the right candidate.
I agree with you. My point, however, is that Republicans never defend their own. Once Christie has been eliminated as a threat to Hillary, whoever emerges next as the Republican frontrunner - whether conservative, moderate, or whatever - will then become the object of a full court press by the Democrat smear machine, and the Republican Party will stand aside and let it happen.
Panic? I’m going to pour myself a fine single malt, put my feet up and savor the Christie crash.
Too bad. Big Gov’t pols of any stripe don’t get my vote anyway.
You are stuck in the Matrix. They have already started destroying Cruz. They will have him disqualified in court. It’s time for a Hail Mary.
The Republican Party will stand by of course, they are a subsidiary of the Democrat Party machine. It is us who will stand and defend Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz.
I am not voting for a rocker or an actor who made a pro-euthanasia movie.
Good idea.
That’s ok. Lots of other people will. I’m telling you if we pick a professional politician and fight Hillary on her ground she will win.
I don't care about Christie one way or the other, but this story says volumes about the ineptitude of the GOP "advisors."
If this was a democrat, his party operatives would be pulling out all the stops to change the subject--like with a foreign meet-the-heads-of-State tour. But the GOP instead pulls its head in under its shell like a turtle. Pathetic. Pathetic I say.
Bump.
If Christie is the best we have, we're in even bigger trouble.
Agreed,. I think Eastwood is probably too old anyway. 20 years ago yeah, but now, nope. He can be a good mouth piece, like Nugent though.
There is such a chasm in the GOP right now. Is there any tea party type that the GOP would accept? Because without the GOP backing they have no shot.
Its all corruption out there with both machines maneuvering for position in 2016.
Smear, destroy, smear destroy, facts or no facts.
The notion that Hillary Clinton should be our next president boggles the mind, but she is a reflection of the millions of Americans who are codependent with an addict and may be an addict themselves.
I guess I’ll have to accept that even though I won’t vote
for her.
I was around for the Democrats-MSM’s war with RIchard NixOn.
It wasn’t pretty.
And we are damned proud to say that.
I think things have devolved too much for a good comparison.
Without conservative backing, the GOPe has no shot either
From the looks of the way the past couple of presidential election have gone the GOPe doesn’t have a chance even WITH conservative backing.
So its no big loss to take our conservative votes elsewhere.
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