Chris Christie: Real Presidential Leadership Consists, I Submit, Of Actual Leadership

Good Christie quote here at Verum Serum (video).

Asked about the debt limit, Christie first offers up the independent-flattering pox-on-all-houses "they should just fix it."

Fine.

But then he turns to Obama. And offers the opinion -- which the press corps cannot believe, so absurd it is -- that a president, the chief executive, is expected to lead with his own plan and his own ideas and his own specific proposal, and not just sit back "waiting for legislators to lead."

He notes that the did not just "wait for legislators to lead" himself.

Crazy!

Meanwhile, Christie lays out his reasons for not running in 2012, in a meeting with donors.

Basically, Christie spoke to donors via conference call, because one among them, a guy named Lagonne, begged him to run for President. Here's what he said:

ere’s a paraphrase of what Christie told his would-be backers: “I’m not running, but I came because Langone is so aggressive, he basically just physically shook me into doing it. I’ve weighed this carefully; I didn’t dismiss it out of hand. There were four considerations. 1) One question was: Where’s my wife? She’s not enthused. 2) The second is: I looked ahead at the potential for two years of running, and not seeing my kids. If I won, six years of not seeing them. If I won a second term, 10 years of not seeing them. Missing my kids growing up is a big deal to me, and it was a big reason. The wife was the biggest. The children were the second. 3) I’m staying in New Jersey. I am not just going to quit halfway through my term. The people trusted me, and I feel like I owe that trust and faith some fidelity. 4) And fourth: Could I win? Could I really do it? I think I would win — not saying I would win, but I could win. I brought my oldest son today because, first of all, I wanted him to wake up early. And, second of all, to have to put on his one suit and tie. But I wanted him to listen because if I did run, which I’m not going to — but if I did in the future — it’s going to affect him. There’s six people in the family — I’m just one. I recognize that not all of you would immediately commit, but it certainly makes me realize that if I were to run, and had this group were behind me, I certainly wouldn’t have any problem raising money.”

Anyway. He's not running.

Tammy Bruce reads this as some kind of a dig at Palin.

I will say what I said on Twitter. Palin is very, very important to some people. But those people have to understand their passion is not shared by all.

So when someone like Christie purports to be talking about his own wife and children, chances are, he's really talking about his own wife and children, and not, in fact, giving coded messages dissing Palin.

Most people do not think about Palin all that much. It is a simple error of projection to mistake one's own enthusiasm for her as universal.

posted by Ace at 04:52 PM

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