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.
OTOH, if he comes out and says, “There’s no way I’m running for President as long as these lunatics are in control of the direction of the national party,” they’ll primary the hell out of him when he goes up for re-election. So he has to play it coy NOT to string people along (like Palin is clearly doing), but to keep the pit bulls at bay until people get bored and find another guy to bother.
Hadn’t thought of that. The GOP really has this guy in a box. They want him because of his thug act, but only want that ‘tude directed at their political enemies. Which misses the point entirely. They want to castrate the very thing they like the most about the guy, and the very thing that would make him a credible threat to Obama: that he takes no crap, drinks no Kool-Aid, and that Christie is likely to denounce the wing-nuts no matter whose party they belong to. The minute Christie starts walking his rhetoric back, he’ll get labeled a sellout and, therefore, like everybody else. Christie is only entertaining and credible so long as he’s not afraid to bite the hand that feeds him.
I feel like the GOP is feeding us Joker Fish.
BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!