Posted on 05/19/2015 8:47:14 AM PDT by VinL
He told ABC five years ago that he supported citizenship, leaving him with two options now. One: Stick to his guns and give conservatives another reason to treat “Christie” as a curse word. Two: Follow Scott Walker’s lead by pleading ignorance in his earlier views and claiming that he’s since seen the light. Actual quote from Christie: “I have now learned some of the ramifications for all of these things.” What those things might be isn’t clear, but it’d be impolite after such an earnest pander to badger the poor guy for details. He’s trying, Republicans. A for effort?
This clip is interesting less because of Christie’s reasoning — which Kelly, sensing the pander, doesn’t bother asking about and he doesn’t offer — than what it signals about his campaign strategy. The night he was reelected governor, people expected Christie to be the establishment hero in the 2016 race, the one guy who might be able to go a bit further left on issues like immigration than the rest of the field because he’d have so much donor-class money propping him up. Two years later, after Bridgegate and Jeb Bush’s entry into the race, he’s a guy without a niche. He’s not going to out-establishment Jeb so pandering to centrists now on illegals will earn him nothing except more enmity from the right. (Bush’s own feelings about a path to citizenship have been nuanced to the point of opacity, which I’m sure is just how he likes it.) Meanwhile, he’s burned way, way too many bridges with grassroots conservatives to hope they’ll fill the vacuum of his lost support in the center. The obvious solution is to try to keep pace with Walker and Marco Rubio by competing for center-righties who might find Jeb a bit too squishy and conservatives like Ted Cruz a bit too ideological. I think his speech a few weeks ago about entitlement reform was a bid to show center-righties that he could be even bolder on fiscal reform than Walker was when he overhauled PEU collective bargaining in Wisconsin. That was a gamble, calculating that “somewhat conservative” voters would be more impressed by his show of leadership than alienated by the thought of tweaking Social Security and Medicare, but he needed to try something to grab their attention. Now he’s signaling to them that he might be a good fit for them on immigration too, not quite the notorious sellout that Rubio was when he joined the Gang of Eight but also not necessarily a guy who may try to curb legal immigration, as Walker’s recently hinted at. (Ironically, Christie’s apparent legalization-without-citizenship position also happens to be the position of alleged right-wing nutjob Cruz.) If he can remain kinda sorta politically acceptable to center-righties through the summer, then he’ll show up at the debates hoping to leapfrog Walker and Rubio through sheer force of personality and charisma. It’s a longshot but that’s what he’s got.
I can only assume, though, that this means Christie’s written off whatever claim he once had to having “special appeal” to Latino voters. His reelection campaign in New Jersey worked hard to run up the score with that group in hopes that it’d be a credential for his eventual presidential run. He ended up with 51 percent of the Latino vote in his landslide victory, a 19-point improvement over 2009. Now that Bush is in the race, though, and Rubio seems a legit threat to become the first Latino major-party nominee, maybe Christie figures that his path with Latinos is sufficiently blocked that he might as well flip on citizenship and see if that gets him anything among center-right voters generally. Exit question: What will his response be when Democrats inevitably accuse him of wanting “second-class status” for illegals by barring them from citizenship? Kind of surprised Kelly didn’t press him on that.
You put YOUR finger exactly on it! Excellent post.
Must have seen his latest poll numbers.
Chris Christie: I now oppose a path to citizenship for illegals ([sotto voce] until after the election, that is).
Chris is simply taking a page from Hillary’s playbook, as flip flopping is the new “third way”, for the climbers out there running for money and power. Er,...I mean, office.
It’s almost enough to make us respect that straight arrow, aka, Bark Obama, who looked us straight in the eye and told us all that “we’re only days away from fundamentally transforming America”.
/S
It’s simple, Krispy Kreme is afraid they will run out of people to make his donuts!
You know it is political season when the politicians are running to the right with the intent of governing to the left.
Heck, even John McCain will be claiming similar ‘I saw the light’ revelations — since he is up for reelection, too.
Ask me again next month, right?
Late to the game . . . I do not like Christie at all!!! He is as fake as a cheap Rolex
Crispy: I Still Believe In Comprehensive Immigration Reform, But "The Voters Wouldn't Be There"
That’s what Rubio said, too, when he was running for Senator. Then he unleashed the Gang of 8 bill, the worst immigration proposal ever put forth. The “compromise” was to add increased immigration billionaires want with the increased immigration socialists want.
Christie is the opposite of “speak softly and carry a big stick.” He’s a loud-mouthed boar who cravenly promotes a liberal agenda. His big mouth proves he believes that the voters want brave conservatism; his ultra-left record shows what he, himself, really wants to do to America.
Who would want a candidate who can be suckered for so long? Not me.
Shut up you fat f $#@!
Why don’t you take off your belt and we can use it as a border fence.
He’s still a Jersey politician and should be disqualified for that alone.
Go have a donut dumbass.
Many of our citizens far away from the southern border, and their pandering politicians, still don't grasp the gravity of the situation as we see it living in the southern border states. This isn't just a major issue to us, it's a matter of life and death; culturally because the invaders have no interest in assimilating into American culture or learning English, financially because illegal aliens are a drain on public services stretched to the breaking point, and literally from the violent criminals and narco gang members pouring over the border.
Any politician that did not recognize the dire national security threat of this INVASION of our country long before running for higher office CANNOT BE TRUSTED to solve the problem with any meaningful actions once elected.
I rarely criticize Gov. Walker openly on FR because he is a good man, but I'm going to make an exception because this issue is so deadly serious to me. Very frankly, on the issue of illegal immigration, I smell the awful stink of G.W. Bush's cold-blooded betrayal wafting from the persons of Gov. Walker and Christie if either man is elected POTUS. Marco Rubio has clearly betrayed the sacred trust placed in him on this issue and revealed his deeply flawed character.
An eleventh-hour conversion on amnesty or meetings with the Chamber of Commerce closed to the media are clear signals to me from any politician. I will NOT be fooled again as with G.W. Bush, not on this most critical of issues.
Whatever the merits or demerits of Christie's position on issues or history of governance, he destroyed himself long before Bridgegate [a total non-issue, concocted by the leftist media] or Amnesty [a real issue, concocted by the GOP elite.]
The simple fact is that when Romney passed over him for Vice President, Christie to his first opportunity to poison Romney's candidacy by walking through the devastation of hurricane Sandy on a slobbering tour with Barack 0bama. A significant number of exit polled voters among independents indicated that 0bama's "handling" of the disaster was determinative in their decision.
That betrayal will never be forgotten by any Republican. Most problematic for Christie, it will not be forgotten by the GOP-e, since it sabotaged their man.
Christie is finished, by his own hand. ἦθος ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων [Heraclitus: character is destiny.]
Who is Chris Christie?
Brother of Chris Krinkle
I was for letting them all stay before I was agains’t it. Sadly no different from Mitt Walker and most of the GOP possible candidates.
The only two possibles who really seem serious about immigration are Cruz and Trump
I used to dislike Christie for his politics and his sleaze, but at least I could trust him to admit that he plans to betray America. Now I can’t even trust him, since we all know he is pro-Amnesty.
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