New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), the struggling presidential candidate, got a late boost from the New Hampshire Union Leader Saturday night. Can this boost Christie’s numbers in New Hampshire and nationally? I live in New Jersey, and I think Christie is a disappointment. The New Jersey economy is very weak, and the jobs numbers are very uninspiring. He is not one of New Jersey’s great governors unless the economy drastically improves.
And he doesn’t absolutely hate Communist Nazi Muslim Atheistic Socialist Kenyans. He must not know that certain groups of people must never mix with certain other groups. Good Presidents must know their place.
He’s also neither insane nor favored by the party, so he’s got no chance anyway.
In the 10 contested Republican primary races since (and including) 1968, the Union Leader has endorsed the N.H. primary winner only four times, and the eventual Republican nominee three times. Astonishingly, it endorsed John Ashbrook in 1972.
I bet he does hate the CNMASK’s. Most people actually do. It’s just that we can’t always agree on who is a CNMASK, and to be honest we’re not actually sure they exist. But if they do, we hate them.
I’m no fan or Christie, but if you put a gun to my head and made npme vote for one of the current candidates, it would probably be him. Or, maybe just shoot me. But it’s close.
November 2011 the NH Union Leader endorsed Newt Gingrich … he ended up 4th in the NH GOP primary sweepstakes with 9% well behind Huntsman’s 3rd place 17% finish with Romney taking first by a very solid lead with 39%. Previously they’ve gone with Forbes, Buchanan twice, and DuPont. He had just polled at 14% before the endorsement was made.
Silver’s analysis of the significance of the NH Union Leader endorsement for Gingrich was one of the times he was pretty dang completely wrong. He concluded that the endorsement implied “that New Hampshire could be quite close, with Mr. Romney finishing with 36 percent of the vote and Mr. Gingrich at 30 percent.” Oops.
So no, the paper’s endorsement is not so crucial and will not result in a boost anywhere, not nationally and not in New Hampshire. He’s running in the single digits there now and he will likely end in the single digits there on primary day; he will not be a top three finisher, maybe not a top five finisher, and he will earn no delegates. He will quit the race soon after the results are counted, within two days. (If he is still in it by then.)
This endorsement won’t help Christie, but it also won’t help anyone else, so it’s all good.
Would be amusing if Christie got indicted while he was still campaigning.
At this point, I have to figure that all of the minor candidates (everyone except Trump, Carson, Cruz, Rubio, and Bush*) are just hanging in there until Iowa or NH, whichever they think they’ve got the better shot at. After you’ve already been campaigning for a year, you don’t throw in the towel with two months to go just because your polls are flatlining.
Now if your campaign’s bank balance is flatlining, that’s a different matter.
*I figure Jebbie will at least stay in through Florida, no matter how badly he does up until then. But once the Republicans of Florida tell him to get lost, he’ll finally take the hint.
It would be a shame if the choice of Chris Christie resulted in the Union Leader losing its reputation for picking winners like Newt Gingrich, Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan (twice), and Pete du Pont.
