The minute he gets in, he sinks like a stone. The minute this thing gets real and stops being a GOP circle jerk, we’ll get to see this extremely entertaining bully whose act will wear thin on both the crackpots Christie so despises and the independents he can’t win without. This is exactly the same thing these people did to Perry: he jumps in and he’s today’s darling, a man’s man who can take the fight to the president. And, almost immediately, they’ll turn on him and leave him sputtering by the side of the road as Romney goes on to win the nod. Getting in bed with these people is a terrible idea and Christie knows it.

How this man can see what these folks did to Rick Perry and think, “Yeah, these are the folks I wanna hook up with,” is beyond me. Long before the DNC starts playing the very amusing collection of Christie clips saying he’s not ready, he doesn’t want it enough, suicide jokes, etc., Romney, Bachmann and the Statue of Liberty Foam Hat Crowd will eviscerate this guy and destroy his chances for gubernatorial reelection.

Christie knows saying “yes” to this is a zero-sum game. He’s wanted to be NJ governor all his life. If he gets in now, by February, March the latest, he’s done in politics. This is a completely idiotic idea, not because he’s not qualified—I mean, like that even matters anymore—but because the GOP is a snake pit right now, full of incredibly wacky types who turn on you in a heartbeat.

Unless Christie comes in and cleans house completely—I mean denouncing the wackos straight off and executing a coup d’état seizing total control of the party—he will be destroyed. Christie, the guy who appointed a Muslim judge while ridiculing wingnuts hollering “Sharia Law!” has denounced these folks too many times to walk back now.

He is not these people’s friend and they know it.

The nation’ s future is in the hands of White America. The novelty of the first black presidential nominee is well behind us, now, and Black America harbors muffled discontent at the administration’s seeming indifference to their disproportionate economic suffering. Which isn’t to say we won’t support the president, but the house-on-fire urgency of 2008 is long gone. The Republicans are unlikely to nominate anyone who will be in any way attractive to Black America, so the only real question is how offensive an Uncle Fester the GOP will pick. They simply don’t have anybody yet who would beat Obama in the general if the economy wasn’ t in the tank. And these nutty cartoon characters the GOP keeps rolling out consistently put their feet, both of them, in their mouths. They are offensive not only to black people but to thinking people, many of whom will simply hold their nose and choose the devil they know rather than roll the dice with one of these buffoonish ideologues.

This is, perhaps, the only campaign strategy left to the president: hope the GOP nominates a nut.