Christie is the new W. Bush do not mis-underestimate him for ONE minute.

[Ninga]

"ha" we said when we learned Bush was running!

But voters thought he was an "Everyman" good to have a few beers with.

Then the election was so close - that the doofus slipped in and stole it right from under our noses while we bent over and took it...while we sat quietly home not believing what was happening.

Christie must be taken seriously, otherwise we will get fucked by the big guy while Mary Pat gleefully flashes her mouthful of teeth.

Remember where you heard it.

[vi5]

1. Exactly.

I don't believe he'll make it through the primary but if he does he will be a formidable opponent despite his myriad flaws.

The only firewall we have is the tea party, who hate him.

The reason Republicans were able to get Bush through was because they wanted to win more than anything and they knew he was their best chance because people liked him. So the hard right kept their mouths shut when he made overtures towards the center and towards Compassionate Conservatism (ha!!!!). The new hard right is both more powerful and more unwilling to keep their mouths shut for the sake of electability.

In 2000 they knew and were willing to admit that they needed to be nicer to win. This current crop thinks they have to be meaner to win.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Irony that we should be hoping that the Tea Party torpedoes him in the primary

As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows!

[Ninga]

3. The political environment is much more fluid now, than in 2000. Course corrections will be made

and if Christie is able to campaign in 2014 for GOP governors...successfully..then all bets are off in terms of who has the influence in the GOP and can possible put a fork into the Tea's.

[Ninga]

4. The next test for Christie is 2014. Which GOP governors will use him for their reelection

campaigns. And for the ones that win, will Christie have made the difference?

In VA it took Clinton, Obama, Clinton stumping for MCAulife to squeak out a win...

[Cal33]

5. Yes, I agree Christie should not be underestimated. He's like GW Bush - only a lot smarter. He is

far more dangerous than Junior ever was. What a horrible thought! I wonder how the
people of New Jersey, which is supposed to be a Democratic state, got to elect him
governor -- and twice.

[Ninga]

6. They fell hard for the oldest political ruse known..He portrays himself as a regular guy

And believe me....he will campaign very very hard to make voters believe he will kick Congresses ass.

[Cosmocat]

10. YEP - "taking charge in DC" will be the new "guy you would like to have a beer with"

I agree with the post that getting through the primary will be his trick.

But, Rs will absolutely fall in line behind him if he does, and the meme absolutely will be that he is the guy to take charge down in DC.

He goes Jersey Shore on some English teacher in Missouri, the Rs will proudly proclaim "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED IN DC!" and the "liberal press" will obediently parrot it.

[JustAnotherGen]

29. Thank you thank thank you

Keep posting it over and over again.

They (The Republicans) also played into the 'us v. them' mentality towards public employees. They effectively moved Teachers, Police, Fire services, etc. etc. into a 'welfare' type of category.

They played on that libertarian thread in the Republican party that wants absolutely NO government services at all.


So they have evolved - it's not just the 'poor others' - it's now the 'solid middle class from public SERVICE others' as well.

It's naive to not see the potential this man as to win it. So you keep posting about how very very intelligent he is and I will keep supporting you on this.

He's the worst of the worst and potentially the most dangerous to the freedom we enjoy today - but folks want to believe that Right Powers That Be will actually allow Ted Nutso from Texas be the nominee - they aren't. They'll select another Governor.

[lastlib]

11. I liken him to Cheney with a charm-school education.

He strikes me as having the same rabid-dog personality underneath the facade, but just hides it better than Cheney could.

[djean111]

26. New Jersey Democrats fucking ENDORSED him.

Democrats contributed to him.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/chris-christie-pulling-in-money-from-top-democratic-donors/

Right now, it may be dangerous to think the DNC will even oppose him, looks like.

[BlueMTexpat]

7. I don't underestimate him at all.

The way he responded to the teacher recently should be posted and reposted everywhere.

And we should NEVER forget it and other things that he has done. He may look sane - even reasonable - in comparison to Cruz or Paul, which is pathetically easy to do. But his policies are every bit as bad as theirs would be for individual US citizens who do not belong to the One Percent.

He is an R through and through. And if we haven't learned what that means by now, we are in real trouble.

[exboyfil]

28. Vet the teacher

It would be useful for a friendly news crew follow her for a day on her job. I can see some effective advertising coming from it. Everybody hates teachers until they think about their children's teachers (that is different). Make her the face of front line teachers, but vet her first.

[Tippy]

8. K&R

[BlueMTexpat]

9. Sorry to answer twice, but here is a bit of interesting

info that I just spotted over at Kos.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/06/1253540/-New-Jersey-exit-poll-pours-a-little-cold-water-on-Chris-Christie-s-2016-ambition

[davidpdx]

12. I think Christie is overrated

If he does run, he's going to have to release more information about himself and be vetted. What do you think he'll say when he's asked for his tax returns? I bet it will be a lot more rude then Mormon Mitt. His exact words will be "fuck you!" That's how much tactic the man has.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. Yes

He is a pain in the neck

[Ninga]

14. While your points are good, I harken back to W. Bush, his background, and what hurt him or not when

it came to voters.

I think Christie is no dummy, and will rely on the low information voters who will not give a rip about his record, his tax returns, et al. If all of that mattered, then the Dems in NJ would not have voted for him. He was swept into office on his "Sandy" response, which is a sham as reported by Chris Hayes.

[davidpdx]

20. I don't think a comparison between Bush Jr. and Christy can be made

Bush Jr was never as adversarial as Christie (at least in public). Also Bush Jr was born with a silver spoon up his ass.

[exboyfil]

31. At the end of the day Romney loved money more than power

Christie seems to love power more than money. Romney had a chance to diffuse a critical situation for himself if could see past the bag of gold. He profited from the extortion that auto suppliers did to keep GM/Chrysler going. His company demanded unreasonable terms and threatened to shut off a critical part for the manufacturers (yes GM/Chrysler's management was stupid getting into that situation). The taxpayers paid the extortion money. He kept it and then criticized the bail out (which could have been a politically tenable position if he had sent the extortion money back to the Treasury at the time).

I don't see any state which voted for Romney not voting for Christie (North Carolina and Indiana being the only two that could slip out of Republican hands). On the other hand every state that was in play last time will be again. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and either Virginia or Florida for the win. Other option Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida for the win.

He is the scariest of the the Republicans because he looks like a moderate. Weight and his temper may doom him, but do not underestimate him.

[UCmeNdc]

15. Agree!

[Arkana]

16. We know Christie--and Bush did it in the age before YouTube and Twitter.

There are many, MANY people who would never have seen the inside of the Oval Office if the post-2008 electronic media had existed, and George Bush is one of them. If Christie runs, we're going to see endless ads of him berating reporters and normal people for just asking questions. He's a thug, and no one votes for thugs.

[Gothmog]

33. I agree

W. would not have done well in today's media environment. We saw this to some degree in his second term where his efforts to sell social security reform and his actions or lack of action on Katrina was displayed by the new media.

[libodem]

17. I agree

He should be taken seriously. I think some Dems like him. He has some mysterious appeal. Maybe it is the plain spoken no nonsense way he states things. Makes you feel like you aren't being lied to, even if you are. Just guessing. I have no real idea.

I like your op.

[hollowdweller]

18. I wouldn't trust him in the shit house with a muzzle on

Way too conservative.

[TheKentuckian]

19. Yet we are in a loop where this character is considered to be moderate

because anything I the near vicinity of sane is the new moderate willfully done in order to herd us into nothing but bad choices for the American people for the benefit of the few.

[tavernier]

21. I think he is riding the coat tails of Tony Soprano

He has that whole Tony persona going, and remember, America couldn't get enough of the show or the mob boss, even though he was a murderer, thief, liar, you name it.
But you always felt that if Tony Soprano was on your side, he would take care of you (well, give or take a few friends who ended up sleeping with the fishes).

I think Christie has discovered this and is playing it up to his advantage.

[Myrina]

22. He could be but, alas, W had the fledgling Tea Nutters on his side ...

... with "God told me to invade Iraq" and other dog-whistle statements.
Christie isn't singing that fundie tune, he's just a mean motherflucker.
Until he gets the Nutter buy-in, it's a GOP cage-match.

[apnu]

23. Christie is very dangerous. He's smart, canny, and likable.

He's the total package in the GOP field. He can even use his weight, which is an obvious attack vector, as a issue to garner sympathy.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the GOP has the bag of tools that Christie has. Not even Jeb, who does come close.

If Christie is the nom, we're gonna have a very tough fight.

[exboyfil]

34. Jeb's last name is poison

No one wants to see another Bush in the White House. The big money will be behind Christie and the big money seems to always call the shots on the Republican nominee. Susana Martinez for VP?

[apnu]

36. Likely unless the teabaggers have another rabbit to pull (nt)

[stevenleser]

24. Christie has zero chance. Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, both Pauls, Cruz, etc. are all against him.

Virtually every conservative pundit is against him. The Teabaggers hate him.

He could be a threat if he could somehow win the nomination and if someone other than Hillary was facing him in the general election.

Neither of those are remote possibilities.

[Ninga]

25. No argument with your reasoning. For some reason, right now, I am more inclined to think

the GOP will want to nominate a candidate who can(has) garnered the support of I's and D's as exampled voters in NJ.

[djean111]

27. Most of those people hated Romney, I think.

If he is rude to Clinton, the teabaggers will adore him.

[stevenleser]

30. It was half and half. And almost all of the half that hated him came on board after the nomination.

It was a different kind of hate too. It's bad enough that like Romney, they view Christie as too centrist. The Christie hate goes beyond that though. This hate is born from Christie cooperating with the person they view as the anti-christ. They also partly blame that cooperation for Romney losing so they consider Christie a traitor.

These kinds of pictures will be everywhere leading up to Iowa:

[HockeyMom]

32. Sandy Amnesia

People in NJ only see what he has done for the state after Sandy, and have forgotten what he did TO the state before the hurricane. Give it a few years. It is very similar to Rudy after 9/11. Where is Rudy today?????

[Gothmog]

35. Double Down and the Romney VP selection memo are a road map for the Democrats

It is clear that the author of the Double Down book have the VP selection memo prepared by the Romney camp. There are some good lines of attack in that memo. I have no doubt that the actual memo will be leaked sometime during the GOP primary process.

Republicans are far more nasty compared to Democrats and I expect that the candidates in the GOP field will do a good job of weakening Christie before 2016. The Bernie Maddoff link will kill Christie with some voters.

Christie's personalty will also work against him outside New Jersey.

[Hippo_Tron]

37. Christie is a lot more dangerous than Bush in some ways, less in others

On economic issues, Bush campaigned from a place that was far more moderate than Mitt Romney. Christie can't do that because he's going to be forced to the right by the Teabaggers, much the way Romney was.

OTOH, he's the popular Governor of a big Democratic northeastern state who spoke prime-time at his party's convention and went on to win re-election in a landslide.

Bush "won" the presidency with the south and the plains states and squeaking by in a few swing states. Christie gets the south and the plains states by default, because the south has become drastically more Republican since the Clinton years. Hillary MIGHT have a chance in Arkansas and West Virginia, but that doesn't even offset New Jersey's 14 electoral votes that Christie almost certainly puts in play.

Christie could also seriously compete in Pennsylvania and that along with his home state puts us on serious defense. If the Democrat can force the Republican to give up on Pennsylvania relatively early (as Obama has done twice) the electoral college odds are highly in their favor. But if they're defending it up until the last second, like Kerry was, they're playing a defensive game and most likely going to lose.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

38. Christie reminds me of Rush Limpbaugh

loud mouth teacher hater

[krispos42]

39. I seem to remember Christie vacationing in Disneyworld during a massive blizzard...

...and him not understanding why everybody was upset he didn't come back and deal with it for his state.

And him fighting hard against legal equality for the GLBT community. And cancelling another tunnel project that would link New Jersey to Manhattan, because we all know that the current river crossings are under-utilized.


I don't care if he's fat, and I don't make fun of him for being so. I'm fat as well, my wonderful girlfriend is a BBW, and I don't need to re-create the casual cruelty of our youths. His girth has nothing to do with his inability to govern, any more than Idiot Son's athleticism did.

He lacks the ability to govern effectively, and makes up for it with bluster and talk and bullying.