run
Barack Obama out of the White House .
Their pissed-off reaction casts
the impression that the lack of subtlety in Christie's unambiguously pro-Obama post-hurricane
chatter has a whole bunch of Repubs feeling like they've been trampled on by a
turncoat Republican. Yet, for the Obama
camp -- along with anyone who feels that what goes around should come around --
the criticism of Christie's fulsome bi-partisanism by some of his GOP brethren offered
a rare opportunity to indulge in a bit of unabashed schadenfreude.
It certainly was in this
quarter. I'm unashamedly welcoming of
the shameful joy I feel about the utterly luckless yet entirely warranted turn
of events exacted on a callous and mendacious campaign that -- until perhaps
just moments after Hurricane Sandy made landfall -- was all but proclaiming victory. Instead,
no sooner had the skies cleared did it become apparent that Mitt's campaign was
being "Romneyed" by Christie.
If being Romneyed could be loosely defined as: to say something to one crowd and something entirely different to
another, then this term probably applies to a situation where a guy who delivers
the keynote speech for his party's candidate later provides what amounts to a
series to 30-second promos on behalf of the guy his candidate is running
against.
This nascent Christie-Obama "bromance" clearly caught the GOP's Obama
posse wide open which, in true reactionary form, led to a humdrum outpouring of
boilerplate shrill from the usual posse of sanctimonious GOP purists including,
the purest of the pure, Rush Limbaugh:
"New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided to play the
role of a Greek column today for President Obama," fulminated Rush on his radio
program.
Christie
in 2016
But did Christie pull a full Romney; or was it something a bit
different? I don't actually translate Christie's
effusive praise of Obama as the Governor's way of sabotaging Romney's
campaign. It seemed more like the
manifestation of Christie's inner fears about the potential long-term impact of
the "Romney Effect" on the GOP brand. My
guess is that if the Republicans had been smart enough to nominate a mainstream
pol like Tim Pawlenty, the torrid -- albeit unmistakably symbiotic -- post-hurricane
dalliance between Christie and Obama would have never happened. Why?
Because Christie has no apparent issues with his party's Pawlentys --
i.e., Republicans with core values. Thus,
it's easy to assume that since Mitt stands for nothing, a politician like
Christie -- who leaves no room for doubt about his own ideologies -- probably can't
stand Mitt. That keynote speech was an
exercise in party loyalty and opportunity to further establish a path for the
Governor's own political future, not an indication of his fondness for Mitt.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).