"Christie leads possible 2016 GOP contenders in CNN/ORC poll."

"A new national poll indicates, that for the first time, there may be an early frontrunner in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination."

Christie gets 24%, polling against Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, and Rick Santorum.

What about Scott Walker?

"If you are a Republican and you like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, then you probably already have your candidate for the 2016 presidential campaign."

"If you do not like Christie, then your candidate for 2016 is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker," says John Dickerson at Slate, who I doubt is keen on helping Republicans, but check out his argument. Excerpt:

Walker has near hero status in the grassroots for taking on Wisconsin’s public sector unions. Cruz talks about taking stands on principle, but he lost his fight. Walker took a stand, was targeted by the full force of the Democratic machine, and stayed alive. He won a recall election with a larger margin than his original victory. He raised $30 million for that race, so he knows how to tap wealthy donors. Social conservatives also consider him one of their own for his pro-life views and his pedigree: His father was a Baptist minister.

Speaking of the forceful machinery of Walker opposition, the Wall Street Journal had this the other day: "Wisconsin Political Speech Raid/Subpoenas hit allies of Scott Walker as his re-election campaign looms." Now, people can stop posting that link in the comments threads and emailing me about it. It's nice to see the WSJ get involved, but from my perspective out here in Wisconsin, the John Doe investigation became tedious long ago. I do see that there are some new subpoenas. Noted.

Anyway, Walker's book "Unintimidated" is now available, beginning today. Subtitle: "A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge."

Don't confuse it with "Unintimidated," subtitle "Wisconsin Sings Truth to Power," which is a coffee table book of photographs celebrating anti-Walker protesters... at least the ones who put their protests in musical form. At only $31.50, it makes a great Christmas gift for the right person.

"The liberal Internet has been in a righteously indignant tizzy (my favorite kind) today over a new column from Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen..."

"... (there’s even a hashtag, #FireRichardCohen, for ease of expression). Cohen has long been derided for lame op-ed writing and general 'unreconstructed,' 'power-worshiping' bigotry. But many readers and critics, including my Slate colleague Matthew Yglesias, apparently found today’s piece — a familiar rehearsal of the resistance Chris Christie, a relative moderate, might encounter during a GOP presidential campaign in more socially conservative contests like Iowa and South Carolina — to be the final, actionable offense."

Good lord! Liberals got themselves into a vortex.

I just wanted to say — as I've said before...

That's WaPo columnist Richard Cohen, or as we call him around here: the never-slept-with-Althouse Richard Cohen.

UPDATE: I wrote another post on this topic, here.

Chris Christie, being all Governor of New Jersey + presumptive presidential candidate, on all the Sunday shows.

Did you watch? I did. All of them — if "Fox News Sunday," "Face the Nation," and "Meet the Press" constitute all of them, as they do in my DVR. Did he say anything memorable? Well, he kept saying he was about being the Governor of New Jersey and simultaneously doing a performance of "This Is How I'll Look Running for President."

His favorite word is "work." From the "Fox News Sunday" transcript: working across the aisle, getting things done... what Congress needs to do is get to work, working with each other and the president to fix a broken system... I'll work with anyone and everyone who is willing to work with me... I'm going to continue to work really hard... From "Meet the Press": I'm ready to get back to work.... I've worked hard with the Hispanic community to let them see how our policies can help their families. I've worked hard with the African-American community. I've worked hard with seniors and students.... . And it's going to give me a mandate to go back to work for the people of New Jersey and finish the job.... We've got a lot of work still to do....

And on "Fox News Sunday" he was asked how he feels about people talking about how fat he is (like Time Magazine putting a profile of him on the cover with the line "The elephant in the room").

Oh, who cares? I mean, seriously. I'm on the cover of "Time" magazine, you know? It is certainly not the first weight joke that has been thrown my way over the course of the last four years.... So you know, it doesn't matter to me.... It does not matter to me, it really doesn't, and if you're going to be bothered by that kind of stuff, then you don't belong in public leadership. They can say whatever they like, it's fine by me.

Christie wins big, de Blasio wins, and what's happening in Virginia?

"Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey won re-election by a crushing margin on Tuesday, a victory that vaulted him to the front rank of Republican presidential contenders and made him his party’s foremost proponent of pragmatism over ideology," says the NYT.

"Bill de Blasio poised to usher in new era of liberal governance in New York,"
says the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, in Virginia....

UPDATE: "Democrat Terry McAuliffe wins Va. governor's race, Fox News projects."

UPDATE 2: Looks like New Yorkers are happy with judges forced to retire at age 70.

"[T]here is a growing sense within the Republican political intelligentsia that Christie and only Christie is positioned to solve the major problems that will face the party in 2016."

And: "Christie is increasingly seen as the one candidate who might be able to bridge the divide between the establishment and the tea party that is in the process of ripping the party apart."

Chris Cillizza says as he ranks Christie first among the GOP's possible candidates for 2016.

I interpret those 2 quoted sentences to mean the same thing, which is making 2 inferences:

1. "increasingly seen" = increasingly seen by the Republican political intelligentsia. (It's the intelligentsia that do all the seeing and sensing that matters to pundits like Cillizza.)

2. "the major problems that will face the party in 2016" = "the divide between the establishment and the tea party that is in the process of ripping the party apart." (The tea party is the problem from the perspective of the intelligentsia, right?)

(Also in the ranking: Wisconsin's Scott Walker comes in at #4, up from #7, and the other Wisconsinite, Paul Ryan has fallen from #4 to #9.)

Chris Christie smiling.

This post is the first in a series, premised on my observation that the candidate with the best smile wins the presidency. I'm not certain that's true, at least not all the time, but it explains a lot, as long as you start in 1976, when a man won the presidency almost entirely because of a gigantic, toothy smile.

So what I'm doing is a Google image search on a presidential candidate's name along with the word "smiling," then picking the least smiley photograph that comes up. I'm starting with Chris Christie because the results made me laugh, and I had a hard time choosing between the photo above and this one:

"Meet Jeff Chiesa."

"Governor Christie’s U.S. Senate Appointee Has Spent More Than A Decade Fighting For And Defending The People Of New Jersey."

A press release received just now in the email:

Jeff Chiesa has served as the Attorney General of New Jersey since January 2012. He received bipartisan support from leaders on both sides of the aisle, and was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the State Senate.

· Attacking The Problem Of Human Trafficking: Chiesa’s office issued a statewide Law Enforcement Directive designed to increase human trafficking investigations and prosecutions, and formed a new Human Trafficking Unit within the Division of Criminal Justice.

· Protecting Children: Chiesa’s office launched a multi-pronged attack on child exploitation crimes, including statewide stings that have resulted in the arrest and indictment of many child pornography offenders. The AG’s office has also worked closely with the Legislature on proposed reforms aimed at toughening penalties for child pornography offenses

· Targeting Gun Violence: As Attorney General, Chiesa has aggressively targeted gun violence in New Jersey through strategic investigations focused on seizing illegal weapons in violent areas, disrupting the supply-chains of those weapons, and aggressively prosecuting criminals involved in the illegal sale and possession of weapons.

· Chiesa’s office implemented the most sweeping gun buyback program in state history which to date has collected more than 10,000 guns off the street, including 1,200 illegal gun

· Combating Gang Violence: Under Chiesa, the Attorney General’s office has opened 120 new “gangs and organized crime” cases in 2012, filing charges against 285 alleged gang members, drug dealers and other dangerous offenders.

· Cracking Down On Public Corruption: Chiesa’s office filed 40 new public corruption cases in 2012, charging current and former public officials at every level with crimes related to the exploitation of their positions for personal gain.

· Promoting Diversity: Chiesa has personally led a continuing effort to recruit and train a diverse State Police organization. Through this effort, the 152nd State Police class is the most diverse in history.

· Star-Ledger: “New N.J. State Police Class Most Racially Diverse In State History, Attorney General Says”

· Responding To Hurricane Sandy: Chiesa helped lead the State’s Superstorm Sandy response involving handling logistics, rescuing victims from floodwaters, and protecting residents from price-gougers and scam artists. To date, 27 lawsuits have been filed against businesses for alleged fraud.

Chiesa served for two years as Chief Counsel to Governor Christie.

· During Chiesa’s time as Chief Counsel, he helped to guide New Jersey through an extraordinarily difficult budget period, including closing a combined $13.2 billion shortfall in the first six months of the new administration.

· Chiesa was intimately involved in crafting the negotiations to pass landmark reforms such as:

· Historic, bipartisan pension and benefits reform that will save New Jersey taxpayers $120 billion over the next 30 years.

· A 2 percent property tax cap and interest arbitration reform to rein in the cost of government.

· Major education reforms such as the Inter-District School Choice Program and the Urban Hope Act.

· $2.35 billion in tax relief for New Jersey’s job creators.

Chiesa served as Executive Director of Governor Christie’s Transition Team during which he oversaw a comprehensive review of New Jersey government operations.

· Under Chiesa’s guidance, the Christie transition team developed 19 individual reports reviewing the operations of every department, agency and authority in state government.

· Chiesa’s team developed assessments and recommendations to improve, shrink and, in some cases, eliminate wasteful or inefficient government operations.

Chiesa spent seven years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, ultimately serving as the Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.

· Chiesa was involved in all aspects of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including the management of the Criminal, Civil, Appeals and Special Prosecutions Divisions.

· He led the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecution of several high-profile public corruption cases such as former state Senate President John Lynch.

· He oversaw the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases involving bank robbery, child pornography, human trafficking and identity theft.

· He also served as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney and as Chief of the Public Protection Unit.

Chiesa has over 10 years of experience in private practice.

· Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Chiesa was a partner at the law firm of Dughi and Hewit, where he litigated civil matters, including the representation of medical professionals and hospitals.

· Before joining Governor Christie’s transition team, Chiesa was a partner at the firm of Wolf & Samson.

Chiesa graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1987, and earned his Juris Doctorate from The Catholic University of America in 1990.

· Chiesa is a native of Bound Brook, New Jersey and currently lives in Branchburg with his wife, Jenny, and their two children, Al (14) and Hannah (12)

· He has served as a Eucharistic minister and taught Sunday School at his church, St Joseph Parish in Raritan Borough, and has coached soccer and basketball for more than eight years in Branchburg.

I said it first: Chris Christie may run for President in 2016 as a Democrat.

Here's my post from June 3rd:

I assume Christie wants to run for President in 2016. If so, he can't reinforce the suspicion that he's really a Democrat (unless he wants to do that Lincoln Chafee thing and become a Democrat).

Here's Rush Limbaugh on his show today:

I will not be surprised... I'm not predicting it officially here, but I will not be surprised, if when 2016 rolls around and Governor Christie is seeking the presidency, I won't surprised if he seeks the Democrat Party nomination...

"Replacing Lautenberg poses several problems for Christie."

"State law allows Christie to appoint a replacement, and maybe to hold a special election later this year. (It's possible, Politico explains, that because it's too late for a primary, an election might have to wait till 2014.)"

... "Rumors have abounded for months that Christie was considering appointing Cory Booker," Politico's Maggie Habermann and Ginger Gibson write. "However, sources close to both men have insisted this scenario makes no sense for either of them."

So, if Christie appoints a right-winger, he angers the Democrats he needs to be reelected. If he appoints a Democrat, which he probably won't, he infuriates the Republican base he would need in the 2016 Republican primary. But splitting the difference won't work, either. Salon's Steve Kornacki points out that appointing a non-controversial old Republican as a caretaker for the seat is not without risk.

Give Christie some advice.

I assume he wants to run for President in 2016. If so, he can't reinforce the suspicion that he's really a Democrat (unless he wants to do that Lincoln Chafee thing and become a Democrat). After hanging out at the shore with Obama a bit too much, he needs to send the message he's conservative, I would think.

"Jersey Shore" ladies try to make a scene with Governor Christie...

... and — despite the look of the headline at The Daily Mail — he doesn't let them:

"Still, Cruz and Christie possess a key similarity: an abundance of old-school manliness."

"Sure, one is a twangy Texan with that shit-kicking, boot-wearing thing going on (despite being a double-ivied, cosmopolitan kind of guy). The other is a Jersey bruiser, with a (much-discussed) physique reminiscent of Tony Soprano after a doughnut bender. But both are delivering a booster shot of testosterone to the GOP in a way few have managed to pull off of late...."

Writes Michelle Cottle in The Daily Beast (erasing Cruz's Hispanicity and Christie's stomach surgery).

Despite the centrality of this image to the GOP, however, precious few of its high-profile players now are apt salesmen for the manly brand....

As for the current team ... Mitt Romney: too much of a doofus. Paul Ryan: ditto, despite the washboard abs. Eric Cantor: too twitchy (manly men do not visibly vibrate with nervous energy). Marco Rubio: too boyish. Jeb Bush: too soft and measured. With his retro Mad Men groove, John Boehner has the potential to be a Don Draper kind of manly man, but he’s too darn weepy.

ADDED: I looked up "shit-kicking" in the (unlinkable) Oxford English Dictionary. It means, "In early use: worthless, contemptible. Later: designating or characteristic of an unsophisticated person from a rural area; (also) tough, belligerent; cf."

1953   J. Harvey Salt in our Wounds vi. 87   You low-life..shit-kicking..useless bastard.
1972   J. Thomson in J. Malley & H. Tokay Contemporaries 189   A beer drinkin finger poppin shit kickin red neck.
1978   Jrnl. Folklore Inst. 15 264   Shit-kicking villagers wearing whatever it is that villagers actually wear these days.
1987   W. Styron Tidewater Morning in Esquire Aug. 88/2,   I, a shit-kicking Carolina yokel who, when I first met you, suspected you of being a neo-abolitionist.
1992   Playboy Nov. 111/1   He told me not to worry, in that shit-kicking drawl of his.
1998   Esquire May 42/1   This woman is one hot, shit-kicking feminist babe.
2002   L. Coady Strange Heaven i. 6   A pack of g.d. shit-kicking yahoos.

How does that relate in any way to Cruz?

Since the days of TV, have we ever had a fat President?

And will the Chris Christie surgical approach to defattifying play politically? What does this approach to problem-solving say about presidential qualifications?



Also: How Newt Gingrich could have been President, how Obamacare is going to have to cover weight-loss surgery, and why Obamacare should lead to the legalization of marijuana.

"Should a five-year-old have a gun?/Why Ann doesn't like to take positions on policy questions/Gun deaths are declining, but what about spree killings?..."

"Chris Christie: Can a fat man win the presidency?/Howard Kurtz, Jason Collins, Tina Brown, and honesty/Benghazi: scandal or hype?" — those are the basic topics, as framed by the Bloggingheads enterprise, as I talk for 70+ minutes with Bob Wright.

Here's the whole thing:



I'll pull out some choice bits in a little while.

"This means he’s running for president. He’s showing people he can get his weight in control. It was the one thing holding him back."

Chris Christie got stomach surgery to lose weight. This happened last February, and he went to some effort to keep it secret up until now.

If Christie runs, will a big weight loss after surgery help him be successful?
	Yes, because people will empathize with his struggle and admire his accomplishment.
	Yes, because being fat would have been held against him.
	No, because he's denying others the comfort of thinking it's okay to be fat.
	No, because the use of surgery instead of willpower fails to demonstrate character.
pollcode.com free polls

IN THE COMMENTS: CEO-MMP said:

I only skimmed the article (cuz I detest Christie), but it sounded like he did it directly after he went on Letterman and did donut shots and said his weight was fine.

Which suggests he might be less than honest. Of course, his conduct in the last year or so also suggests that.

He also did an interview with Barbara Walters in December which engaged with the issue whether a very fat person can be President. I think those 2 performances were done to test public opinion and the surgery is evidence of the results of that test. There was the idea that perhaps people would think that being fat was endearing, humanizing, and part of his overall delightful personality. He went on 2 prominent shows, reaching different demographics, and — in so many words — made the argument for fat acceptance.

I assume internal polling was done, and he was forced to see that the "fat man" image wasn't going to work. He took action. Note that in March, the month after the surgery, he rolled out the saying "Fix it!" At the time, I made fun of him for using that slogan when he's the walking embodiment of the inability to fix something. In fact, when he was emoting for the Barbara Walters demographic, she asked him why he's fat, and he said: "If I could figure it out, I'd fix it."

"Walker quietly tops list of GOP favorites for White House..."

"Gov. Scott Walker is the sleeping lion in a list of possible Republican candidates for president in 2016, surging to the top of some politicos’ lists who see his scandal-free past as a big boon. Mr. Walker stands above even 'first tier' Republican candidates like Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Christ Christie, political analyst Larry Sabato with the University of Virginia said, in a report from The Washington Examiner. That’s because he beat a concerted Democratic Party recall effort — and that sets him apart, and above, Mr. Sabato said."

Says the Madison rag The Capital Times, evincing a little too much devotion to Governor Christie.

Is Chris Christie's "fix it!" rhetoric smart?

Or does this sound like your average guy watching the sequester debacle on TV?

“I don’t understand it, I don’t understand why they haven’t fixed it already. It seems to me that it should be pretty easy to fix. Real leadership would get this fixed. Get everybody in the room and you fix it and you don’t let them leave until you fix it,” said the Republican. “That’s what real leadership is; not calling a meeting two hours before the thing’s going to hit to have a photo-op in the driveway at the White House. That’s not real leadership. Fix it!”

Yeah, this should be pretty easy to fix. Get everybody in a room and yell fix it! at them and don't let them leave until it's fixed. That's what they oughta do.

Seriously, if that was your dad, what would you say to him?

ADDED: "Fix it!" reminds me of "Just do it!" (the old Nike slogan) and "Just say no" (the anti-drug slogan associated with Nancy Reagan). Which reminds me... Christie is grossly overweight. Why doesn't stop eating so much? Just do it. Just say no. Fix it! It should be pretty to easy to fix.

"Listen I don’t necessarily think having an armed guard outside every classroom is conducive to a positive learning environment."

Said Gov. Chris Christie when he was asked to respond to the NRA's proposal about school safety.

Not that NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said there should be an armed guard outside every classroom. That's an interpretation imposed by Christie for the purpose of rejecting the proposal. Christie conceded that he didn't "know the totality of the proposal," but he seemed to think that "from a law enforcement perspective," you’d have to have an armed guard outside every classroom since schools have so many doors. But isn't that like saying there's no point having police officers on the street unless there can be one on every corner? Wouldn't an armed guard somewhere in the school be able to rush to the scene of a disturbance anywhere in the school within a few seconds? That would be better than waiting for the police, wouldn't it? And consider the deterrent value. A school with an armed guard wouldn't seem like such an obvious soft target, and that might make all the difference to the sort of coward who would murder children.

Christie says: "You don’t want to make this an armed camp for kids. I don’t think that’s a positive example for children. We should be able to figure out some other ways to enhance safety it seems to me. I think that’s the easy way out."

Okay, what are the other ways? It's good to be open to other ways, but, ironically, Christie only perceives one way to implement the NRA proposal. He sees the school looking like an "armed camp" with a guard displaying a gun at every door. That's the easy way to dismiss the NRA proposal. Why not consider positive ways to bring armed security into the school — at least before rejecting the idea? Claiming you're resisting the "easy way" when you refuse to do that is pure sophistry.

Why are you fat?

Barbara Walters asks Chris Christie.

He doesn't know why, and if he could figure out why, he'd fix it. Then he says it doesn't mean he's not capable of serving as President. But, come on, when you're President, all the world's problems are yours, and you'd better be good at figuring out what's wrong. These problems are much more complicated than why he's fat! He not just a bit chubby. He's very fat. Whatever the subtleties of why people get fat, a good percentage of what he's carting around has got to be from just plain gorging himself. How can he sit there with a straight, sincere face and say "If I could figure out why, I'd fix it"? At least we have video showing us how he looks when he's lying.