The Real Reasons That Chris Christie Isn’t Running
As Joe Gandelman writes here, Chris Christie has decided not to seek the Republican president nomination, unfreezing a race that has seemed to be moving in slow motion as the party faithful and campaign contributors with deep pockets waited to see what the New Jersey governor would do.
Not stated in Christie’s boilerplate announcement this afternoon are the less apparent reasons why he won’t run. They include the fact that:
* He is, in many respects, a RINO. He favors gun control, believes that global warming is real, has taken a moderate stance on immigration, and named a Muslim as a state court judge while condemning opponents of the so-called Ground Zero mosque in New York City.
* A broad majority of voters do not yet have an opinion of him and according to one poll, only one-third of Republican primary voters say they wanted him to run.
* He has little experience governing and has stumbled badly in some respects since beating incumbent Governor Jon Corzinez in 2009.
* He has serious health issues, including asthma which has led to several hospitalizations, and is morbidly obese.
Christie was being pressured to enter the race by a group of wealthy donors in the New York area, among other places, in yet another sign of the deep dissatisfaction with the Republican presidential field.
The governor has repeatedly said he is not interested in seeking the nomination and would have until the end of October to join the race, but the pressure on him was ramped up last week with the rollout of a $1.5 million television ad campaign praising him.
Christie’s appeal largely was because of his successful efforts to take on public employee unions in an effort to cut New Jersey’s budget deficit and the fact that unlike Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has stumbled in recent weeks, he is not a barnburner although he can be candid.
At a political forum last week, he hinted of the decision he announced today when he spoke with distaste of the prospect of finding himself “in a hotel room in Des Moines and its 5:30 in the morning, and it’s 15 below, and it’s time for me to get up and go shake hands at the meatpacking plant.”
4 Responses to “The Real Reasons That Chris Christie Isn’t Running”
Here’s the “I will not run” speech I’d like to hear from a governor, and Christie is one who could pull it off….
“Ladies and gentlemen,
“Today I emphatically announce that I will not be running for President.
“I am sure you are asking yourselves: ‘well, why not?’ It is very simple.
“You see, at this stage in our history, our federal government is so completely dysfunctional, it is no longer salvageable. It has failed us outright, and frankly, I have neither the fortitude nor the interest in holding the position of chief executive for something as functionally incompetent, morally bankrupt, realistically oblivious and unethically partisan as our federal government.
“Look at the facts: our Congress is gridlocked in a game of partisan one-upmanship, with both sides willing to see a nation flounder under the burdens of unemployment and economic stagnation simply so they can be the ones to gain power in the next election cycle. We have an executive branch so burdensome and choked with bureaucracy it’d take 100 years just to decode, never mind correct. And we have a Supreme Court so misguided and disconnected from the people they actually think corporations should have the right to take control of the political process through unfettered campaign spending and lobbyist influence. It’s all shameful and maddening and I want no part of it.
“The last and only bastion for the American people is the states. With the level of failure at the federal level, only the states are capable of producing positive change. The states are leading the way on just about everything: economic development, health care, job creation, environmental protection, civil rights. The states are there, working the issues while Washington fiddles around with partisan rancor and “blame football”.
“I will remain as governor of the great state of [insert state name here] because it is here I can make positive change. Washington has failed us. And I am not interested in becoming titular head of a failed enterprise. Maybe, someday, when the three branches of government realize what’s truly important and gets their head in the game, I’ll reconsider.
“I wouldn’t, however, hold my breath if I were you.”
I watched his speech today. According to him he is God’s gift to New Jersey, and steaming full speed ahead with great progress. He got a lot press out of this saying “no” business for a long time now. Today he didn’t hesitate to graze the tops of the Tea Party issues, but not too deep, as if he the world would naturally agree with him on the issues anyway. He paid all important traditional homage to Reagan the Republican God. All easy comments to make. IMO, there is no doubt in my mind that if he thought he had a real chance at winning the Presidency he would go straight for it and all of this “I’m here for New Jersey” crap would go right into the rubbish bin along with those five months of poll results he has been studying.
Barky, I don”t think he can talk that much without passing out from exhaustion.
Considering how fast a President ages during a four year term, there is no way Christie could survive being President. It isn”t fatism…it is reality. The job destroys your body.
“The job destroys your body.” Amen to that, Shannon. This isn’t about the fact that Christie is a fatty–he is, btw. It’s about how reasonably sure the electorate can be that the guy can do the job without breaking down, physically.
The President literally carries the weight of the world on his (or hopefully HER, eventually) shoulders. And I think the pressure is increasing year over year. The decisions become ever more complex, the consequences ever more dire.
Of course no one has a crystal ball. None of us know how long we have left. Seemingly healthy people drop dead every day while chubby smokers and drinkers live to a ripe old age. But a fella who can’t walk 50 yards to his kids football game because he gets short of breath, is not up to the job.