I’m one of those independent voters who has been intrigued by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. While I don’t agree with all of his policies (to say the least) he has not been a lockstep talk radio political culture Republican, or someone who sounds like a conservative blog post. He has shown some significant, refreshing independence of thought.
But I am concluding he has a serious problem if he wants to run for national political office. The first time he blasted a voter, citizen, his opponents, you could say it’s kind of a refreshing Trumanesque candor.
But earlier this week he called a reporter who was simply doing his job asking a question “stupid,” and now he has had this verbal altercation with a citizen who didn’t agree with him while he was buying an ice cream cone:
So a citizen saying critical things about a Govenor means they are “shooting their mouth off”?
I thought that’s what our democracy allows — and encourages?
I think it’s now getting to the point where his problem is this: there are so many instances now of him being verbally abusive and seeming almost out of control that it’s a bit scary imagining him in the Oval Office.
I can just bet how the Cuban Missile Crisis would have ended — given the temper we’re now seeing on display…increasingly. And he and his team seem really proud of his outbursts.
This may play well for some GOPers but I’m betting he’ll have some problems on the national stage if he runs and the Dems run a bunch of commercials showing a montage of him getting angry or — as in this clip — seemingly losing it.
As Truman said, if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen (and I will refrain from making a crass, cheap joke here).
If Christie could exercise some control his candor could be a plus. But what we seem to be seeing is someone who appears to have no impulse control when he is challenged or not obeyed by those who are NOT as powerful or more powerful than him.
Not a good trait in a potential President.
Or even potential Vice President.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.