He is. This would be a good time for people to remember that he was pretty well-liked on a bipartisan basis at the time of his election, but that reputation faded after he took office and governed as a conservative Republican. This allows him to burnish his bipartisan standing. It’s good for Christie, it’s good for Obama, it’s good for New Jersey. It’s bad for Romney, but I think in a similar situation with the parties reversed, a Democratic challenger who wanted to tour a red state with a Democratic governor probably would’ve gotten the brushoff while a Republican president got the credit.
This is not correct. Christie barely squeeked by over a very unpopular incumbent. His popularity - pre-Sandy - was higher than at the time of his election.
I think you’ve made the incorrect assumption that I was just talking about New Jersey.
Well I certainly made that assumption.
but if you meant nationally, I would disagree as well. Christie was not particularly well known nationally at the time of his election. He came to national attention as a result of the very blunt talking and confrontational style that polarized opinions about him.
I’m voting for “just being a good governor”. Frankly, I think it’s silly to assume he’s looking at 2016. The VP nomination was his for the taking (hell, by some accounts, the nomination for POTUS was his for the taking).
That isn’t his actual Twitter, it is a parody account. His real Twitter is here.
In other news, I 'm not sure why its so funny, but I can’t look at Christie wearing that jacket with his name and job-title on the front without cracking up.
Now that they’re best buds, I hope he gets Obama a “Barack Obama - President” jacket next time he visits the WH.
I think that disasters often show politicians in a different light, or if nothing else at least will allow those outside of the local area to form different opinions of them than the locals did before the calamity put them in the national spotlight.
I mean, look at Rudy Giuliani. He was actually looked upon quite negatively in NYC before 9/11. “By April 1999, Giuliani’s approval rating had dropped to 40 percent, and a year later, his failing marriage had become a daily tabloid soap opera.” (US News & World Report). Then he handled himself well during a disaster and suddenly his approval shot up and he became America’s Mayor.
Of course, do a bad job and you can become a pariah, even back at home. According to a poll when New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was gearing up for the election post-Katrina, only “40 percent approved of Nagin’s performance, which is just half of his 80 percent approval rating in 2003.” (New Orleans City Business). Nagin won his second term but it was quite controversial with New Orleans still empty from Katrina, and he failed to impress anyone in the city before being term-limited.
The point is that the way a politician handles themselves when a crisis occurs will almost always be the defining moment for that politician. Christie is nothing if not a shrewd politician. He has to do not just a good job here, but a great job. And not just for a Presidential run or even for New Jersey, but for his legacy.
So he’s playing things up, which makes sense. But you know what else he could have done and be equally effective? He could have said that Obama didn’t do enough and make headlines pounding out spittle-laced tirades about how the federal government was letting New Jersey drown.
Hell, he could have done this even if it wasn’t necessarily true! As anyone who has ever listened to Mitt Romney or Fox News knows, truth is not nearly as important as the soundbite.
But he didn’t do this. He didn’t hold Obama to insane standards nobody could have met. He didn’t make out like Ray Nagin screaming for help (and as bad a job Nagin did, his pleas were not unwarranted).
Maybe - just maybe - Obama actually came through for New Jersey.
Maybe - hear me out here - the President actually performed admirably in the face of this disaster and Christie merely wanted to give the guy some credit. Maybe Obama actually deserved the response Christie gave him and, having integrity, actually gave credit where it was deserved.
Bummer… It did sound like something he would say though, while rolling his eyes…
“President Obama, center,” heh.
Among other things, Christie has surely noted that for the past four years Republican leaders have avoided the Unspeakable Name of the previous President. If (as I expect) Romney loses, his name will surely join Dubya’s in the Party’s memory hole. He’s just getting a bit ahead of the curve.
I disagree with this assessment. If indeed Christie has national ambitions, he could be hurt if the activists and party people believe that he is unreliable and self-serving.
As others have noted, this latest episode was on top of his keynote speech to the Republican convention, which many considered to be self-centered.
Unless further arrangements are made, FEMA pays 75% of the cleanup cost share. After reading the story below, my guess is that Christy’s praising and compliments of Obama are a “bribe” to try to get Obama to pull strings and get FEMA to pay 100%.
Yeah, a reputation for flip-flopping and saying whatever it takes to win really sank that one guy… Matt Lumley?.. Mutt Rabley?.. somebody help me out here…
The fact that Romney won doesn’t mean that the reputation didn’t hurt him.
Plus, Christie’s big plus is the fact that he’s such a straight shooter. This would hit at his strength.
What strings?
You may recall that GWB had exactly that, and got Gordon Brown a matching bomber jacket with “Gordon Brown, Prime Minister” on it (which was soooooo not Gordon’s style). It’s all very Harriet Jones.
Why would he want the VP nomination on a ticket destined to lose when he has his sight set on the actual presidency? And he’s smart, he knew that he didn’t stand much chance as the presidential nominee this year so he’s building the foundation for later campaigns.
It’s hard to say that Romney was “destined to lose” - while it seems likely that he will do that, it’s a close election and hard to argue that it was a sure thing.
And politicians’ popularities rise and fall. Christie is at something of a high point right now, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be there in 2016. As noted earlier, he could eadily lose reelection in 2013, and even if he doesn’t, any number of things could happen between now and 2013. (It’s likely the economy will improve, which would help him. OTOH, he has an abrasive personality, and people get tired of that after a while.)
It does help with the identification though. Do you have any idea how many fat white guys there are in New Jersey?