Heh…I hadn’t remembered that you were the one who started that (very entertaining) Pit thread. 
Could someone explain to me why the majority of New Jersey voters picked Christie over the Democratic candidate? Was his opposition so bad that Christie seemed a viable alternative? This utterly confuses me, as I would think the Democratic party would have an edge in winning a state like New Jersey…
He’s popular, and the best Democratic candidates decided they didn’t want to run against him.
I think the initial perception was that he might be a bully to “the others”, but that he looked out for his own, that is to say, the people of his state. This bridge thing, though, could really hurt that, since it’s “his own” who were targeted.
Name recognition could have played a part as well.
This whole thing is just so stupid it boggles the mind. Blocking bridge lanes is no way to punish a political enemy. It’s just stupid. The way you punish the mayor of Fort Lee, is every time he comes to Trenton with hat in hand wanting some new project or whatever for his town, you tell him to pound sand. Eventually, he gets voted out of office because he can’t deliver any good stuff for his constituents. Tying up traffic for a few days (albeit massively)? Just not going to do it. It just annoys people. The whole point of sticking it to someone is making sure they know you’re sticking it to them.
He’s been a much better Governor than several of our prior Governors.
Jon Corzine is a crooked Billionaire that was a complete joke of a Gov. Recently lost billions for investors in his post Governor’s job and seems to have got away with it.
Jim McGreevey resigned in disgrace. Sex scandal and blackmail along with being a truly terrible Governor.
By comparison Christie did a good job during Sandy, bucked the Republican party and told off Faux News. He’s made a lot of unpopular decisions to help the budget crisis and kept NJ from being a disaster during the great recession. He is kind of a Jersey guy, even those embarrassed by some of his tirades, will acknowledge he is as much NJ as Mayor Koch was NYC.
Now I say all this as someone who did not vote for him either time. I vote for Buono though I knew she had no chance and the first time I voted for an Independent, Chris Daggett, an actually moderate Republican with a great record on Green Issues as I did not like Christie and hated Corzine.
Bridget Kelly was fired.
That was some nice spin by the administration’s hand-picked guy, but no. Progressive groups were supposed to be looked at by the Cincinnati office, but Tea Party applications had to be sent to DC.
It’s so easy for the guy at the top to maintain plausible deniability. Punishment of political opponents has never been directly ordered by the executive unless it’s a Huey Long type running a virtual dictatorship anyway.
Underlings know who the enemies are and they know how to punish them. And they know how to keep their boss out of the loop.
But in the end, the guy at the top has to be responsible. He’s the one accountable to the voters. If we allow non-elected officials to do what they want without facing accountability, while also excusing the elected offiicals because they didn’t know, then democracy is dead. We end up with an unaccountable government that cannot be controlled.
This is just the break the Coolidge campaign has been waiting for!
John McCain!
But seriously, plenty of viable governors: Walker, Jindal, Kasich, many others less well known but certainly serious enough.
Talk about charisma.
Schweitzer, now there is a guy with personality, he liked to veto bills with a branding iron.
Oh, wait, you mean a republican, sorry, nm.
You guys have short memories. First, charisma isn’t a qualification for office, as we’ve seen for the past five years.
Second, non-charismatic Presidents do get elected. More commonly than Senators, I might add.
In the last 50 years, I think it’s pretty clear that the more charismatic (and likable) candidate won in each Presidential election.
True. But it’s a relative thing, and would break down if one party actually imagined it was all that mattered.
Hillary Clinton isn’t going to beat any of the Republican candidates in charisma or likeability. But I wouldn’t bet against her just because of that.
Are you joking? This is subjective, of course, but you’re kidding yourself if you think most voters will believe that Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, or Ted Cruz are more likable and more charismatic than Hillary Clinton.
And the number of Teabagger applications sent to DC which were disapproved was… zero. Some progressive groups were denied this status, ZERO conservative groups were. Are you saying that anything done in DC is by definition suspect and anything done elsewhere is by definition wholesome and pure?