Have we ever seen a politician flame out as quickly — and as utterly brutal — as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s? Not since Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s famous “Oops..” brain freeze moment erased Perry’s national chances and gave him the image of a not-up-to-prime-time-but-a-punchline has the political scene seen such an abrupt reversal in fortunes. Christie’s national political prospects seem to be vanishing into a big, fat, sinkhole — but it’s one he either created or created conditions for its emergence.
A Google search for “Bridgegate”…”Hoboken’s mayor” now calls up hundreds of articles that trash Christie’s image because its now clear he is a)a political incompetent who could not control his own team and didn’t know they were doing (if you believe his defense), OR b)a political hypocrite who talked bipartisanship and doing what was right for New Jersey when it was all no-holds-barred political positioning, bullying, emergency funds hostage taking (if you believe allegations and feel investigations will confirm this), OR c)damaged goods even if he is proven to have been deceived and therefore useless as a future Republican Presidential contender Or perhaps a combination of all three.
Worse: think of the agony of Christie.
Months ago he was almost a version of the 2000 John McCain: a politician who seemingly had charted an independent path, hated by some Democrats, some Republicans but popular enough among independents, some Republicans and some Democrats to hold out the promise of a new national electoral coalition that could expand the GOP’s base. He was on Letterman, TV shows, and showed a flair for self parody in some videos that suggested he could even have a career in Hollywood if he wanted it — a kind of comedy Fred Thompson. His fleece became a trademark. The camera and national polls seemed to love him.
But how there is a massive collapse as the straight-shooter Christie brand morphs into the image of yet one more partisan hack. Salon’s Joan Walsh sums it up the best:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is sinking fast. Yet another national poll finds that his 2016 hopes are fading, as he falls from first to third place among likely GOP presidential contenders in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, and 12 points behind Hillary Clinton. Like earlier polls, this one finds that Christie is losing his best attribute for 2016: his wide appeal with Democrats and independents.
Now comes another blow: He’s lost the Ron Fournier primary. A year ago the centrist National Journal reporter, long a Christie promoter, wrote that “the smartest man in politics may be Chris Christie.” Today he writes: “I take it back,” in a piece headlined “Why I Was Wrong About Chris Christie.” While taking no stand on Christie’s direct culpability in the scandals erupting around him, Fournier says they show that “Christie ran a hyper-political governor’s office that focused relentlessly on a big re-election win to position him for a 2016 presidential race.”
Fournier comes a little late to that news, but he’s got a lot of company: If you didn’t believe Christie was trying to run up the score in his 2013 reelection campaign you weren’t paying attention. Why else would he spend millions of taxpayer dollars to hold a special election for senator, won by Democrat Cory Booker, in October, rather than Election Day in November, except to ensure himself a lopsided if low-turnout victory?
But the extent to which Christie and his team went to run up his reelection numbers, especially among Democrats, is pretty amazing, as detailed by a gripping New York Times piece, “For Christie, politics team kept the focus on two races” – his 2013 reelection, and the 2016 presidential race. Fascinatingly, in this telling, at least, Christie’s group was hugely focused on the 2016 general election, with a statewide strategy that focused on towns it termed “mini-Ohios” and “mini-Floridas,” swing districts often led by Democrats. The piece also details the effort the team made to woo Democratic mayors, brazenly coordinating state aid and development decisions with pitches for Christie endorsements.
Founier was not alone.
Yours truly is an authentic independent voter who has been in various political incarnations (Democrat, far left liberal, Republican, far right conservative and for the past 13 years an independent voter). I assumed the Christie I saw was the real Christie: politically smart, independent, what-you-saw-was-what-you-got, colorful, New Jersey assertive versus political thuggish, prone to bullying but not to the extent that it was his behind-the-scenes style, and supported by some Democratic leaders in New Jersey because they genuinely felt he reached out to work with him. I used that assumption in articles written for The Week Online, and many blog posts on TMV over the years, and some nationally syndicated Cagle Cartoons columns.
Increasingly, it seems it was a wrong assumption.
The gap between the Christie we saw and the portrait of the Christie that is not emerging is not as bad as that of the ultimate hypocrite and (a word I seldom use) outright liar, former Democratic Sen. John Edwards. But his troubles are growing.
Christie raised hopes among many centrists, independents, moderates and GOP establishment types that he might be different from the same, tired cookie-cutter-mold politician we see among Democrats and Republicans, and among liberals progressives and conservatives. He had the image, poll numbers and election results backing him up and he has remarkable political talent.
Now a large part of the country is concluding that if even they felt Christie was different before it may be time to say this:
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.