# So, we should get used to saying "President Christie?" Yea or nay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 21, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448 "2013-11-21T17:12:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/221 "2014-01-08T22:14:09Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Such a strange and stupid scandal. It’s almost cartoon-villain like… “if you don’t endorse me, I’m going to… snarl your town’s traffic!” > > Weird, buffoonish stuff. Yea. I get annoyed with every scandal getting tied to Watergate (usually by tying a “-gate” suffix to it, presumably because the other party wants to make it seem like the same scale as Watergate). But this is kinda Nixon-esque. Cristie had no chance of losing the '12 election. And having an opposition Governor most people have never heard of not endorse him wasn’t particularly important or unexpected. But he doesn’t seem to have been able to help himself from going after the guy. And not only going after him, but doing so in such an over-the-top manner it would make Nucky Thompson blush. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/222 "2014-01-08T22:14:14Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > He is claiming now that he had no idea this was going on. Any chance this excuse passes the smell test? Not any more than if you were alone in an elevator with Christie, you smell a fart, and he says “It wasn’t me”. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/223 "2014-01-08T22:23:23Z")
I get that the odds of this being true are very small. I guess my question is, barring any further data to directly link him to this, does he get away with it unscathed by falling back on saying everything happened without his knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/224 "2014-01-08T23:28:40Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > I get that the odds of this being true are very small. I guess my question is, barring any further data to directly link him to this, does he get away with it unscathed by falling back on saying everything happened without his knowledge. If he didn’t know about it until now, then either he didn’t bother to investigate something that negatively affected thousands of his constituents, or some of his closest aides lied to him about very important stuff. Either way, it torpedoes his presidential aspirations. And he’s very lucky the election for governor was last year rather than this year. A recall may not be out of the question. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/225 "2014-01-08T23:58:36Z")
Of course he knew, underlings wouldn’t take it upon themselves to punish an adversary without telling him or without being ordered by him. There would be zero point to that. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/226 "2014-01-09T00:01:44Z")
CNN is now reporting that the traffic interfered with paramedics responding to a heart attack call. I think he’s toast in terms of further elected office, guessing he may be challenged to hold onto his governorship. (That’s how it looks from out here in Calif, at least, to me). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/227 "2014-01-09T00:41:25Z")
Don’t make too much of it. He won’t be forced out of office. It complicates future runs, but it doesn’t obviate them. He’s got a few years to prepare a reasonable answer/have someone fall on their sword to ease the pressure. Let’s watch the ‘ash heap of history’ attitudes. Nixon came back, after all. So did Marion Barry. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/228 "2014-01-09T00:47:05Z")
After many years of watching the body politic, I still am guilty of frequently overestimating the intelligence of the voting public. We will see. I’ve got to get one right, eventually. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/229 "2014-01-09T00:48:24Z")
Nixon came back after a narrow electoral defeat, not after a scandal. Marion Barry had the advantage of an electorate that simply didn’t care about his scandal. There still are a few acts to go in this play, but it’s inconceivable to me that Christie’s staff went rogue. My opinion is that he not only knew, he ordered it and someone died because of it. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/230 "2014-01-09T01:09:28Z")
Bob, I think Jonathon was referring to the “Checkers” speech in regards to Nixon, which predated his “won’t have me to kick around anymore” comment after the defeat. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/231 "2014-01-09T01:24:21Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I think Christie is unfit for office, and [I’m not alone.](http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gov_chris_christies_officials.html) There is absolutely no doubt that Christie staffers planned to make mischief and then rejoiced in it, even dismissing the affected school kids as children of parents who vote the wrong way. This is a shocking abuse of power and they put people in real danger with no qualms. Time for a recall. Yeah, he’ll have a hard time shaking this one I suspect. From [NorthJersey.com](http://www.northjersey.com/fortlee/GWB_lane_closures_delayed_EMS_response_in_Fort_Lee.html): > [@](#): > > Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious – due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough’s EMS department. > > The woman later died, borough records show. > > In at least two of those instances, response time doubled, noted EMS coordinator Paul Favia, who documented those cases in a Sept. 10 letter to Mayor Mark Sokolich, which The Record obtained. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/232 "2014-01-09T01:27:02Z")
Did someone die? all i’ve heard is an ambulance was delayed. Edit: guess so, ouch. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/233 "2014-01-09T01:29:07Z")
I think Mr.Christie is toast. I’ll never believe he was not involved in this happening. And his smart ass, haha, attitude about the whole thing up until now, looks pretty disgusting now. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/234 "2014-01-09T01:33:15Z")
So what was it I read, that it had to do with a “traffic study”? What the hell? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/235 "2014-01-09T02:04:11Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > Bob, I think Jonathon was referring to the “Checkers” speech in regards to Nixon, which predated his “won’t have me to kick around anymore” comment after the defeat. Checkers and Pat’s “good Republican cloth coat”. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/236 "2014-01-09T02:10:13Z")
I think an interesting question is this: If punitive actions were taken against a mayor that didn’t endorse Gov. Christie, were any “favors” done for other mayors that did? ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/237 "2014-01-09T02:10:47Z")
Christie, you will never be president. You will be lucky if you remain governor. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/238 "2014-01-09T02:31:05Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > Bob, I think Jonathon was referring to the “Checkers” speech in regards to Nixon, which predated his “won’t have me to kick around anymore” comment after the defeat. Yeah, it’s surely what he referred to. So Nixon lost a close race and made a remark in haste that we had seen the last of him. Not a scandal. He came back from losing. Big whoop. How many times have people said “I’m not thinking about running” and then jump in? He said he wasn’t going to run again and did anyway. Hardly an epic comeback. Now if he had resigned after one term and then got elected, THAT would be an epic comeback. I think Christie coming back from this would be more significant than Nixon coming back into politics after his loss to Brown. . ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/239 "2014-01-09T03:14:27Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Don’t make too much of it. He won’t be forced out of office. It complicates future runs, but it doesn’t obviate them. He’s got a few years to prepare a reasonable answer/have someone fall on their sword to ease the pressure. Let’s watch the ‘ash heap of history’ attitudes. Nixon came back, after all. So did Marion Barry. Nixon didn’t come back after Watergate. And Marion Barry only had to win over people predisposed to thinking that whitey was giving him the shaft. Even if Christie knew nothing about what his inner circle was doing for him, the fact remains that _he hired the sorts of people who thought this was the sort of thing they should be doing for him._ The Cossacks work for the Czar, and all that. And when the scandal broke a few weeks back, he clearly was in no hurry to get to the bottom of it and fire the miscreants. Now he’s got one last chance: by COB tomorrow, the people who worked for him who planned this fiasco have to be out on the street. Because if, knowing what he knows now, he’s still not in any hurry to dump them, then he owns it. But even then, I think it’s pretty clear to the world that he’s just another crooked Jersey politician. He may be able to ride out the storm and hang onto his governorship, but he can forget about the GOP nomination, let alone the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448/240 "2014-01-09T03:43:39Z")
Christie’s Road to the White House just got all lanes closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-we-should-get-used-to-saying-president-christie-yea-or-nay/674448.md?page=13)