Christie eyes reelection but 2016 prospects uncertain
Outspoken New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talks about his relationship with President Obama and the president's response to Superstorm Sandy. When asked about the current politics involved, Mr. Christie acknowledged the situation, but said "when it comes to getting things done, I don't care what party somebody's in."
This article originally appeared on RealClearPolitics.
NJ's Gov. Christie will run for re-election
As his advisers spread word that Chris Christie will seek re-election in 2013, the New Jersey governor's prospects in his home state have never looked brighter.
A Farleigh Dickinson University poll of Garden State voters released Monday showed that 77 percent of respondents approve of his job performance, including 67 percent of the Democrats surveyed. In the previous Farleigh Dickinson poll (released in October), just 26 percent of state Democrats and 56 percent of overall voters had rated his job performance positively.
The earlier poll was pre-Hurricane Sandy, however, and it's clear that the Republican's assertive leadership and hands-on response in the storm's aftermath -- as well as his full embrace of a supportive President Obama -- significantly boosted his standing in the state where Sandy made landfall and inflicted historic damage to the shoreline.
"New Jerseyans were just overwhelmingly positive about the way he handled the storm and its aftermath and, in particular, the bipartisan outreach to Obama," said Rutgers pollster David Eagleton.
In a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released last week, 59 percent of New Jersey voters supported Christie's re-election against a generic Democratic opponent in next year's gubernatorial race, while just 32 percent opposed a second term. Those numbers are significantly up since September, when just 44 percent wanted to see Christie re-elected, while 47 percent did not, according to the same polling organization.
But winning a second term as governor in bright blue New Jersey is not the same proposition as prevailing in a 2016 Republican primary season. Christie's unrestrained chumminess with Obama in Hurricane Sandy's aftermath may have compromised the superstar governor's standing within his own party.
Although Christie's emphatic praise of the president's leadership in Sandy's wake went over well with Democrats and Republicans alike in a state in which Obama bested Mitt Romney by 17 percent, there is no shortage of out-of-state Republicans who were dismayed when Christie praised Obama as "outstanding" and deserving of "great credit" as Election Day approached.
Christie was the first sitting governor to endorse Romney during the Republican primaries and was for months an active fundraiser and surrogate for the eventual nominee, but an array of prominent conservative media personalities led the post-Sandy backlash against him -- a response that has not subsided.
In fact, some of the very figures who tried unsuccessfully to persuade Christie to run for president in 2012 have changed their tune.
Iowa Republican fundraiser Gary Kirke was part of a small group of influential GOP Christie backers in the nation's first voting state who traveled to New Jersey in May 2011 to try to entice the reluctant Republican to enter the race.
In a brief interview on Monday, Kirke made clear that his and his peers' enthusiasm has waned significantly.
"With all due respect to the storm and all that, we felt that he sort of played into a political game there," Kirke said. "I don't know what his plan is, but it didn't go over very well with us."
A second previously vocal Christie supporter in an early voting state questioned the governor's keynote speech at the GOP convention -- which critics complained was not focused enough on Romney -- while also condemning his post-Sandy comments about Obama.
- no previous page
- next
1/2
Popular in Politics
- Obama forgets to salute while boarding Marine One Play Video
- The Ted Cruz conundrum
- Petraeus biographer regrets affair
- As summer approaches, sequestration threatens holiday fun
- IRS' Lerner was asked to resign, refused: GOP Sen. 197 Comments
- GOP Rep.: Obama elected because of Reagan's immigration reforms
- Obama prom pictures surface
- Is President Obama ending the war on terror? 351 Comments
--------------------------------------------
since the republican party is now the 'authoritarian follower' club ... with a complete rejection of obama as a valid leader (part and parcel to their psychological condition) ... they must sustain that hardened belief that he's not suited as a leader ... that he's incompetent ... that everything he has already done ... and everything he will ever do ... will be inconsequential and ineffective.
any introduction of evidence to the contrary (anything positive or useful) of this pre-existing hardened belief would not be reconcilable to the idea that he's a failure. (how could he be a failure if he's doing something useful?)
so what does an authoritarian follower do with this 'good' that he's putting forth?
there's only a few things that they can do:
- insist that it isn't good
- discount it as unimportant and therefore it's (again) not really good
- claim that he really had nothing to do with the good (ie. the killing of osama bin laden)
- stick their fingers in their ears, close their eyes, and hum loudly
if one of their own (christy) actually validates any action from obama as positive and useful ... this is especially a problem ... and their only choice is to marginalize, attack, and discount that individual ... thereby invalidating the accolades provided ... and maintaining their hardened belief that the 'one' they don't accept as a leader is still invalid.
fox news spends nearly all it's energy ... with some commentators giving 100% ... feeding and re-inforcing the negative message to their viewers (they're mostly authoritarian followers too) that anything this 'false' leader is doing is negative ... even when it's not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
http://www.whale.to/b/authoritarian_followers.html
----------------------------
what's that ... the cost of living has gone up? what a shocker.
did you notice the near meltdown of the whole western capitalist system on a global scale?
when did that all start again?
be sure to reject all the facts that don't fit ... and direct your frustrations at the most convenient source.
sustaining belief is of utmost importance ... reality be damned.
So why did Chrisite allow himself to be used by Obama? For what benefits? Why invite Obama and his support team to "tour" the disaster area. I would have invited Obama and his team to come and work--get their hands dirty--serve food to the masses--give blood to the hurt and needy.
Take the tin foil off of your head and maybe you will stop being brainwashed by the far right!!!
Christie wants to help the people of his state, yes ALL of them REGARDLESS of their political party affiliation.
As far as Christie "essentially ending his political career...by his mouthing off"... just you wait and see about that one... I think his career will be better than ever. The powerful GOP "Gods" will eventually find out that the people want civility, consideration and cooperation between the parties in their leaders and that all the intimidation, fear, and money in all the super pacs in the world WON'T buy an election! LOL!
I was brought up to believe as Mojitomamma previously stated: "WHEN SOMEBODY DOES SOMETHING FOR YOU, WHEN SOMEBODY HELPS YOU IN YOUR TIME OF NEED, YOU FREAKING SAY THANK YOU!!!!!"
Exactly why, in a nutshell.
A typical politian. didnt he know Obama was just looking for a photo op?
---------------------------------------
typical wild eyed foaming at the mouth right wing zombie. Never vote for anyone who would even consider any kind of cooperation with half the country who he considers an enemy.
Instead vote for someone who is going to pull his pants down and economically ram it up his rear