Chris Christie: Why Sure, I'd Entertain a Run For Vice President

It's my sense this particular star has faded.

He doesn't say he would agree; just that he'd take Romney's call and listen to him.

Um, duh?

"This is an election with one voter, Mitt Romney. He gets to decide who he thinks should be the vice president of the United States," Christie said. "I love being governor of New Jersey, you can tell. But the fact is, if Gov. Romney picks up the phone and calls, you have to answer the call and listen at least."

I'm thinking more Jindal.

Sometimes Christie annoys me, as he did when he asked a reporter if he was "stupid" for asking an off-topic question. He then apologized for "that idiot."

It's not that I give a fig about the reporter's feelings. It's that I don't buy that a governor -- or a president like Obama -- can lay down the law as regards what questions can be asked.

Christie can declare he's only answering on-topic questions -- that's fine, and his right. But when he presumes to order citizens to only ask him questions he's willing to entertain, that demonstrates, to me, a mistaken understanding of the relationship between, as I think Justice Kennedy once said, so long ago, "government and the individual."

Oh, it's not disqualifying in and of itself. It's sort of a "Who cares?" kind of thing. But I don't expect that to play well. It seems gratuitously bossy.

Do I like the fact that he's hostile to the press? Sure. But I don't like the how-dare-you attitude about it.

As far as electoral math: If Romney even has a shot at winning New Jersey with Chris Christie, then Romney doesn't need Chris Christie or New Jersey, because other states (with less steep tipping points) will fall before New Jersey.

Does his brash New Jersey tough-guy persona win voters in other states? I don't know. I think the low-information, disengaged voters we need to win are the sorts of saps who say stupid things like "We need a more civil discourse" and "We need facts not personal attacks" and "We need to be less partisan." All of those safe, question-ducking things -- if you cannot make up your mind about what direction you'd like to see the country go in (in fact, you've never even bothered to think about the question too hard) it's always a nice, safe-sounding cop-out to say you'd like people to "work together" and "reach compromises."

And on that front: I think Christie is a compromiser (which conservatives don't like) but he has the image as a defiant partisan barb-thrower (which the squishy moderate muddleheads don't like).

So I just don't know if I love him for the job.

posted by Ace at 04:34 PM

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