Someone somewhere on the web (maybe here?) said last night that they thought it would be perfect 11-D chess — 2016 style — if the Kenyan Muslim Usurper (D-Acorn) called Governor Chris Christie to congratulate him on his victory.
Well…
White House Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Obama was happy to call Christie after the two worked together on Hurricane Sandy relief. [via TPM]
And just to show that the President (and his team) have not lost a step since November 6, 2013, there’s this:
“Obviously he and the governor have spent a lot of time together,” Carney said. “The president was glad to congratulate him on his victory.”
What’s that I hear? The Cruz, Paul, Rubio, Walker, Cain, and Stassen oppo teams all downloading this picture?
As for me — I’m left with the Yogi accolade. Our president is smarter than your average bear elephant.
Image: Yūhi, Cormorants catching fish, 1755.
Redshirt
Beautiful, on all counts.
Think of it people! Barry gets to troll real Wingnuts, for real.
Comrade Jake
“Governor Christie pals around with Obama!” – Rand Paul
“Did you come up with that on your own, or did you just look it up in Wikipedia?” – Christie
I’m actually looking forward to the Republican primaries. I get the whole chess thing, but I think people underestimate Christie at their own peril.
Violet
Wow, Christie is fat in those photos. He’s definitely lost weight.
David Koch
History’s Greatest Monster
Omnes Omnibus
Stassen, heh.
Mark B.
@Violet: having your guts surgically altered to prevent you from digesting your food can be pretty effective.
Gin & Tonic
@David Koch: Indeed. The Celtics were the original Evil Empire.
Gin & Tonic
have not lost a step since November 6, 2013 I know you’re wicked smaht and all, and a clever writer, but unless I’m missing something, it would be hard to lose a step since November 6, 2013 *on* November 6, 2013. So what am I missing?
Suffern ACE
First he invites David Brooks over once too often. Next thing yah know he’s stumping for Christie saying how he didn’t leave the party, the party left him.
MikeJ
Another pic oppo teams may be saving: http://i.imgur.com/a7RsIgy.jpg
Tom levenson
@Gin & Tonic: aww f**k. 2012 of course, but the big iron’s shut down and I’m passing out so the error will have to stay.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Gin & Tonic:
It can’t be November 6, 2013. There are no flying cars, no robots to do all the work, and no vacation hotels on the Moon and Mars.
Omnes Omnibus
It is nice to see Obama doing preemptive work for 2016.
hells littlest angel
If Obama really wants to help keep the White House Democratic, he can:
Endorse Christie.
Campaign for Christie.
Make the keynote address, in Ebonics, at the 2016 Republican convention.
Redshirt
Since String Theory’s 11 Dimensions are mostly just ever smaller, tighter tiny knots of reality at the sub-quark scale, picture a game of chess being played in each * Dimension * by the same protagonist. That’s Barry, Mutha Fuckas.
J.Ty
Brilliant. Keep reminding the GOP of the time Christie was nice to the near.
Suffern ACE
@hells littlest angel: it was all going as planned until Obama got cocky and started talking to a floor lamp.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
ROFL!
Villago Delenda Est
Good lord, Christie is TWICE Obama’s width in that photo.
It’s like the contrast between Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze in the SNL Chippendale’s sketch.
Alison
OT: can anyone get Wikipedia to come up? Did Rand Paul destroy it in a petulant tantrum?
MikeJ
It’s a pity that I can’t see the picture of Christie hugging Obama because you have to allow any crazy website in the world to run javascript on your computer to do so. I’m just impressed that there’s somebody who isn’t ashamed to let it be known to the general public that they use Bing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison: Comes up for me.
MikeJ
@Alison: Up form here
http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/wikipedia.com
Belafon
Christie will definitely be an interesting contestant. He can argue that he can get Democratic votes, but the exit polling in his own state showed he would lose against Clinton, and the Tea Party will not like him not being pure. He’ll have the same demographic problems as Giuliani being from the North East. But he knows when to yell and the proper people to yell at, but he’ll probably pull that on Clinton once, if she decides to run, which will piss a lot of women off.
David Koch
I thinks this clip will be the nail in his political coffin.
? Martin
@MikeJ: Its Jersey…
Alison
Okay NM it finally came up. The internet has definitely made me an even more impatient person than I was back in ye olden days.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: I swear that he will be a dick to some 16 y/o Culver’s waitress in Wisconsin. It will be filmed and it will kill him in the upper Mid-West.
trollhattan
@David Koch:
Did y’all read this? Because you really, really should
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9908161/this-our-papi
Redshirt
DEATH TO ALL CENTRISTS!
amk
Already the teaparty nutheads are taking a swipe at the pufferfish.
Alison
@Omnes Omnibus: I want someone to ask him if his education policies will include regular visits to schools around the country in order to scream in teachers’ faces.
trollhattan
@Violet:
Swear to bog when first seeing that pic I thought the caption said “Chris Christie Chugging Obama” and I wasn’t questioning it.
chopper
lol, that’s not 11-dimensional chess. hell, that shit ain’t even whack-a-mole.
Mandalay
@Villago Delenda Est:
If Christie can shed 150 lbs in the next couple of years he might change his size from a liability to a real asset.
He can call it “his personal journey” as he smiles lovingly at his super supportive wife with the hint of a tear in his eye, in syrupy campaign ads. The fat vote has to be far bigger than the teahadists or the fundies.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mandalay: He’ll still be an asshole with rage problems.
MikeJ
@Mandalay:
“If I can slim down, why can’t we put the federal government on a diet?”
cckids
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yep. That’s the one that inspired someone (Colbert?) to comment that, if Christie ran in 2012, during the debates when they stood side by side, they’d resemble the number 10.
Redshirt
@MikeJ: I’m concerned. I’d say very concerned.
trollhattan
@MikeJ:
We’ll all live long enough to rue that James Gandolfini won’t be around for the Christie parodies. He’s never not reminded me of a mob lieutenant.
TG Chicago
This will be great as long as Christie doesn’t win the GOP nomination.
But the last two guys who won the GOP nomination were politically more similar to Christie than to Cruz…
Omnes Omnibus
@TG Chicago:
Did they win?
fuckwit
I bet that picture of Obama and Christie will be as much a joy to the teabaggers as this picture was to progressives in Connecticut:
http://blog.reidreport.com/uploaded_images/bush-kisses-lieberman-700957.jpg
Mandalay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, I find that rage thing disturbing. I expect all of our recent presidents have had meltdowns in private, but not in public. Christie’s short fuse pretty well disqualifies him from the presidency IMO. And unlike being overweight, I don’t think that there’s any way of fixing that problem. He’ll eventually get found out no matter how hard he tries to play Mr. Nice Guy.
NotMax
@
Reminded of what some wag said following a NYC mayoral debate in 1969. (Need to know that Mario was below average height.)
Last night there was a 3-way debate among candidates for mayor.
John Lindsay stood on his record.
John Marchi stood on his experience in Albany.
Mario Procaccino stood on a phone book.
JordanRules
@Redshirt: Ha! Fantastic!
NotMax
FYWP.
#45 was @cckids
piratedan
well maybe this also serves as a subtle reminder that Christie has yet to distribute the lion’s share of Sandy federal relief funds…. oh yeah, that Obama guy made that happen, honey did we get a check from Trenton yet?
GregB
@fuckwit:
That prompted one of the greatest political floats ever.
The Kiss.
chopper
@TG Chicago:
and what makes you think the teabaggers will allow it to be three?
muricafukyea
Looking at that picture I’m sure we can all agree with Republicans that fat bastard Christie is literally twice the man Obama is.
TG Chicago
@Omnes Omnibus: No, and that’s a valid point. But if Christie wins the nomination in 2016, he probably carries NJ, right? If that’s as far as his “blue state appeal” goes, great. I think it could possibly stretch over to some other New England states and PA and OH, which would be a problem. Especially if the Democrats lose a few points due to sexism, which seems sadly possible.
piratedan
@TG Chicago: in polling conducted in NJ, Christie loses NJ to Hillary, against generic Democrat, he wins. Thing is, who knows what will happen, people die, say stupid things, get sick, get fed up…. as much as Hilary is the front runner, the same was true before Obama won the nomination. Has she learned any lessons? Is there a better candidate in the making? who knows… Whereas the R side is a complete train wreck of potential candidates from Santorum to Paul to Cruz to Christie….and that may not be all.
Omnes Omnibus
@TG Chicago: Which New England states? And where does sexism come in? And how does it benefit a Republican?
TG Chicago
@chopper: Same reason they allowed it to be two: if the GOP Big Money gets behind Christie and the Cruz / Paul / Rubio types flame out the way Bachman / Perry / Cain / Newt / Santorum did, then he’d be a shoo-in.
I don’t have faith in Cruz / Paul / Rubio to keep up a reasonable facade during the primaries. Plus, I think Cruz pissed off enough GOPers and Paul scares them.
I mean, as terrible a candidate as Romney was, he was still the best option they had. The bigwigs who got behind him early made the right choice for the party. I could easily see them deciding that Christie is their best option in 2016, and they’d probably be right.
David Koch
It might be instructive to flip the situation around.
What if there was a red-state Democrat who hugged Bush (at least implicitly) and was perceived to have helped him to a 2nd term, could that person win the Dem nomination.
The closest example would be Edwards. Obama has made North Carolina purplish at the presidential level, but before him, it was pretty red (Bush won it by 13 pts in 2004). Edwards marketed himself a full throated populist who could win over rural whites and red states, but he was DOA over the fact that he co-wrote the Iraq war resolution.
Now Christie will have a lot of cash and the media on his side and market himself as someone who can win blue voters, but so did Giuliani and he didn’t win a single delegate.
Ask Charlie Crist, who like Christie was once on a short list for veep, how hugging Obama plays with red voters.
TG Chicago
@Omnes Omnibus: New Hampshire. At any rate, OH and PA are the greater concerns.
Sexism would come in if his opponent was a woman, such as Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It would benefit a Republican man over a Democratic woman because sexism tends to favor the man over the woman.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: if Hillary runs, the question is do New England and Rust belt voters break for a man over a woman. I don’t think so. But it’s worth asking. I don’t see it happening. Mainly because I don’t think there are many more males left who can be persuaded to join the Republican Party.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: They broke for a black man over a white one.
@TG Chicago: Sexism is stronger than racism?
David Koch
@Suffern ACE: Women turn out will be historic. Especially if it’s an all female ticket with Warren, Hagan, Nunn, Klobuchar, Hassan, or Wendy Davis as veep.
TG Chicago
@Omnes Omnibus:
I honestly don’t know which is stronger in a political setting. My hunch is that both of them would cost the non-white-male a couple points.
ruemara
Waaaay OT: This seems mighty cool. Where’s Iamh3
67?http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rainfilm/rain-a-fan-film-about-storm
If I won the lottery this month, I’d give her all she needs and more.
Mandalay
@David Koch:
It’s a beautiful concept but I suspect the number crunching would show that a male/female (or female/male) ticket would be even better (with respect to winning).
Omnes Omnibus
@TG Chicago: And how poorly did Obama do in New England, PA, and Ohio? At most, Christie gives the GOP New Jersey and I doubt that.
TG Chicago
@David Koch: My first reaction was to think that it’s not particularly instructive to flip the situation around, since D and R primary fights tend to work a bit differently.
But maybe you’re right. For one thing, the standard GOP move for the past several cycles is to go to “the next guy in line”. But there’s no clear next guy. Maybe you could say Ryan, but I doubt he’s perceived that way.
For another, after getting beat twice, Democrats in 08 picked the candidate perceived to be the furthest left. Might the GOP do the same in 16, to the right? Could be. I imagine that if 2014 goes well for the GOP (like 06 did for the Dems), that might give the upper echelon of the party more optimism that they could get behind a winger.
You also mentioned Iraq. At the moment, the closest analogue is probably the ACA. So if the ACA looks as bad in 16 as Iraq did in 08, then that would indeed likely kill the chance of any potential GOP nominee who didn’t oppose it at every level. So Christie would be done. But I doubt that’s the way it will play out, so I’m not sure that will be as big an issue in 16.
Shorter version: if the GOP does well in 14 and the ACA is a disaster by 16, then I’d agree Christie doesn’t have such a great shot of winning the nomination. But I don’t see that scenario being very likely.
TG Chicago
@Omnes Omnibus: Obama won OH by under 3 points and PA by under 5.5. I wouldn’t take either for granted in 2016.
Let’s put it this way: which likely GOP nominee has the best shot of winning OH and PA in 2016? I think it’s Christie.
I guess I can see Obama’s strategy in being pro-Christie this way: if Obama is reasonably popular and the country is doing reasonably well in 2016, then an Obama-Christie connection might help Christie, but the overall landscape would likely lead to a Democrat winning anyway.
And if Obama is not very popular and the country is not doing well in 2016, then the Obama-Christie connection probably won’t help Christie. In fact, Christie would be more likely to lose the nomination to a more extreme winger, thus helping the Democrat.
Omnes Omnibus
@TG Chicago: Obama’s strategy in being vaguely complimentary to Christie is not designed to benefit Christie in any way. It is a knife in Christie’s back for the primaries. It isn’t as though Obama will endorse or campaign for anyone but the Democratic nominee.
Yatsuno
@Omnes Omnibus:
The ghost of David Broder just wept. I hope you’re happy.
piratedan
@Yatsuno: I’m sure Tim Russert was able to pass him a hankie….
TG Chicago
@Omnes Omnibus: That is all known. The question is whether or not it will work.
If it doesn’t kill Christie in the primaries — and it might not — it could help him in the general. That’s been my point all along.
Jewish Steel
@fuckwit: Funny, I’ve made until this very day without seeing that picture. I don’t know what made me click on your link. Totally disturbing.
piratedan
@TG Chicago: that’s a helluva lot of concern to carry until 2016, why not just sit back and work for Dem candidates in 2014 to take your mind off the possibilities…..
TG Chicago
@piratedan: Why is my concern less valid than other peoples’ cheerleading? Honestly, the chance that any Obama-Christie interaction of any sort tips the scales in 2016 is minimal. But it’s fun to speculate.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Holy crap! Someone tell mix that b-j rottenchester.com is hanging the fuck outta the loads!
Alison
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Um, what?
Jewish Steel
@Alison: Cabbage crates coming over the briney?
piratedan
@TG Chicago: speaking only for myself, no Republican candidate can hold a Dem’s delicate nether coverings. The biggest factor is the media, who will they fluff and how hard. The money will consolidate (like it usually does) and send out the usual spate of attack ads based on whatever culture war spin/shiny of the moment. carefully spliced word bytes of misinformation to allow Politico to issue the usual patina of half truths that allow them to polish the turd that they attempt to sell the American voter…. The issue, as always, is turnout. Will the ground game do what is needed to get the voters to the polls and over the political and media driven obstacle course that will be laid out in front of them. The question for speculation is who will be in the ring… unsure who will represent from either side tbh… on the Dem side, there is Clinton, Biden and some possible dark horses, say Gillebrand. On the R side, there’s an entire clown car (with open UHaul behind it) starting with but not exclusively comprised of Palin, Santorum, Perry, Paul (lesser and miniscule), Huckabee, Trump, Cain, Christie, Bush, and Cruz. When you consider what they’ve actually done and said and voted for, you wouldn’t let any of these folks watch your house while you’re away for the weekend much less run the country. The sad fact is that they either own most of the media or that the media’s own best interests remain in keeping them viable. As such, I’m not sure which R matters, the flavor of the turd will remain the same, but the color of the sheen may differ.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Alison:
The page is taking for-fucking-ever to load. It seems to be hanging on b-j.rottenchester.com. Seeing that DPMix (or whatever his nym is today) (and, like DougJ, iirc) is from Rochester and is the site’s tech-monkey (keeeding), I think it’s got something to do with him.
Alison
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Ahhhh okay. Also, it’s working fine for me. Maybe they hate you, or they want you to finally be Andy K again.
Alison
@Jewish Steel: Win. More people need to make random Python jokes. Always and everywhere.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Alison:
No, it’s happening to others. I saw mention of it in another thread. Might have something to do with those of us running Firefox.
NotMax
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Firefox? NoScript is your friend. As is Ghostery. (As well as AdBlock Plus, but mentioning that gets some front pagers upset.)
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@NotMax:
I’m running both. Don’t know what to disallow in the Noscript queue.
ETA: It’s only hanging when I reload the page. Loads fine when I comment.
Alison
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Weird. I am using Firefox…eh, who knows, tech shit is strange.
Yatsuno
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Can you just stop it? I just did and it doesn’t seem to have affected anything.
fuckwit
@TG Chicago: There is zero chance of ACA being a disaster. Millions of people who never had medical insurance now have it. Millions more who never had a choice of medical insurance other than what their employer deigned to give them, now do. Still more milions who could never have left their jobs because they’d lose their insurance, no longer have to worry about that. There’s nothing disastrous about any of that, except maybe for corporations, the 1%, and the insurance companies, and fuck them.
Yatsuno
@fuckwit: There are going to be losers in the ACA calculation, and it’s the losers that teh Village will deem to stuff microphones into their faces. Success and good policy is booooring. They need Conflict! Drama! RATINGS!!! Who gives a fuck about the things working?
The only counter for this is for the law to chug along. The good it has yet to do is still looming.
Alison
@Yatsuno: A NYT article from a couple days ago opened thus:
GEE. Wouldn’t it be great if we had some sort of mass mechanism by which the public might be informed of things that are happening…a group of people who could have some easy way to convey facts and details…some sort of record….of the news…on paper…
I mean for the fucking love of God. “Has not garnered much attention” BECAUSE YOU ASSHOLES WERE TOO BUSY WRITING A ZILLION ARTICLES ABOUT WEBSITE GLITCHES, you un-self-aware tools. Ugh.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Yatsuno:
Well, I, uhm…Yeah.
But that’s not the point, dammit! A guy should be able to refresh the page without all that hangin’ goin’ on! America! Apple pie! Quickly loading pages! Shaddup, ya commie!
The Raven on the Hill
I’m betting on Christie as a Democratic Senator from NJ in the future. Heee, er, croak.
piratedan
@Alison: just like there were thousands of reports about the confusion regarding the ACA, did anyone actually bother to report what was in it….. no, the story was the confusion about it and people’s frustration with that fact. Because the President didn’t go door to door with a brochure… the bastards wouldn’t even talk about the website that had the answers available.
The thing is, most reporters are just tools, it’s the news and program directors that decide on the “flavor” or “slant” that the story will take and they’re not about informing the public, it’s all breathless hyperbole, film at 11.
raven
I know people were all “oh these books are bullshit” but the description of Team Romney backstage during Eastwood’s speech is great!
Baud
@raven:
I saw the authors talking about that on one of the morning shows. It did sound interesting, but then I remembered who the authors were.
raven
@Baud: Yea but what’s the difference who wrote it if it’s accurate?
MikeJ
@raven: Which book was it?
raven
@MikeJ: Double Down: Game Change 2012 (2013)
Mark Halperin, John Heilemann
Their description of Obama’s meltdown after the first debate is interesting as well. They say he really lost faith in his ability to function in the debate format. Obviously he found it.
MikeJ
@raven: Ah good. I’ve got that one sitting in my book server, just never read it.
raven
@MikeJ: It’s only been out 2 days?
eta Heilemann was on Lawrence last night and said it’s pretty apparent that Christie has some real baggage that kept him from being Romney’s VP choice. Like he worked for Maddoff.
Baud
@raven:
It’s the accuracy part. I’ve lost a lot of trust in our media people, particularly guys like Halperin.
raven
@Baud: So take it with a grain of salt. It’s interesting either way. Their take on Palin was pretty accurate.
raven
We hate Morning Joe and he just said he just said he got a call from a republican with two kids with pre-existing conditions that got a great plan through Obamacare and a Democrat who couldn’t get through.
p.a.
@raven: meltdown. loss of confidence. please consider the sources of this info.
raven
@p.a.: What the fuck, the dude had a really shitty debate. You don’t think that had an impact on him?
eta Do you believe Romney’s aide threw up as he watched Eastwood’s speech?
SFAW
Stassen? Looks like Ayn Rand Paul’s plagiarismization has made it even to the – dare I say it? – hallowed halls of The ‘Tute.
Because I am (as in “have been”) the only old fart who gets to invoke the name of the ‘steamed late/former Governor of Minniesoder. Must I now switch to Bob LaFollette? Or, FSM forbid, Gus Hall?
If you weren’t at Cambridge’s anti-Harvard, I might be forced to challenge you to a duel. Or some idiocy like that.
ETA: Disclaimer: the preceding was written before the caffeine had kicked in. And was written by my staff, who have been told to feetnote everything. Or something. Hater.
Marc
@piratedan:
False. The hankie caught fire.
Villago Delenda Est
@Marc:
That’s only because Dick Nixon and Lee Atwater were just returning from the pools of lava.
Redshirt
Think of it! Not one of these dozens of dipshits could be bothered to even so much throw up a “Post here plebes” thread and yet, you still post.
SiubhanDuinne
Stay classy, Cooch (warning: Huffpo link).
MomSense
I wouldn’t make so much of women voting for a woman candidate. I will vote for Clinton if she is the nominee but not before. There are other Democrats (hopefully they will run) whose policies and character I prefer.
JPL
Michelle Obama should congratulate Christie on his weight loss and healthy living.
sparrow
@MomSense: Agree. I know it’s shades of false equivalency, but there are lots of women on the right who probably hate Hillary as much as women on the left (or say, smart women) hated Sarah Palin. Voting for Hillary, for me, would be about as much fun as voting for McAuliffe. Now Elizabeth Warren on the other hand…
Josie
I would like to see an ad cut that uses a clip of Cristie in his acceptance speech saying he knows how to sit down with people and find solutions to problems juxtaposed with the clip of him screaming at the teacher.
mai naem
@fuckwit: There is a chance of disaster if the Dems don’t stick together and force Obama to start changing stuff in the original act like what the chickenshit Dem senators are asking him to do like delaying the mandate. In hindsight, I think it’s a minor miracle that O-care has gotten this far being all the assholes the asshole GOP pigs have put in front of it. Just think – blocking an appt to the head of CMS of a man who had experience in the Mass. rollout, no PR budget, the court challenges, threatening the NBA and NFL if they helped enrollment, GOP governors saying no to medicaid expansion/state exchange set ups,GOP governors/legs waiting till the last minute on their decisions, not enough funding for the rollout….jeezus I wish the Dems had done this kind of crap with the Iraq war.
mai naem
@Josie: I would like an ad with him going about having the state live within its means and state workers having to make sacrifices and then somehow showing his expense tabs from his USAG days living it up at the Four Seasons and taking $400 limo rides to the Logan airport.
Josie
@mai naem: Exactly. He is vulnerable on a number of these contrasting pictures.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus:
So he is part of the Balloon Juice demographic.
gene108
@Josie:
The shouting at the teacher is ancient history. I mean, it’s like trying to kill a politician’s career because he experimented with eating paste in preschool.
It has no traction in areas that Christie could flip in a Presidential campaign for Republicans, like NJ and Philly suburbs.
He’s outgrown that awkwardness of his early stint as governor. Find a clip of him bullying someone in public after 2011. He’s really toned the bullying part down and become very media friendly.
Think of Christie like a sports coach, who had a meltdown early in his coaching career but later learns to give glib interviews with the press, with some good one-liners and saying stuff with enough conviction that it doesn’t come across like generic coach speak. Christie’s a lot like that now and has a strong appeal to that sort of demographic, who aren’t terribly political but like his persona.
gene108
@mai naem:
Republicans want to rule. Democrats want to govern. There’s a big difference in those political philosophies, but the media does not want to point it out.
Kay
@Josie:
Christie reserves his wrath for public school teachers.
Private schools have been ripping off NJ taxpayers right under his nose:
NJ also has a booming, privatized halfway house industry that Chris Christie never mentions when he’s bellowing at public school teachers. It’s a blatant, corrupt taxpayer rip-off but it’s privatized so it gets the Christie rubber stamp approval:
Matt McIrvin
@gene108:
The Swift Boaters got Kerry for stuff in the Vietnam War that didn’t even happen.
Keith G
@fuckwit:
Depends on the criteria for “disaster”. At present, there is not enough cost control in place. That will lead to pain for some initially. If systemic medical inflation is not addressed more comprehensively (that’s what the public option was for) the pain will bleed out to the general population as subsidy payments will be increased.
ACA is definitely better than what was, but it is not without serious flaws.Years of responsible leadership will be needed to evolve the plan into the better law it should have been.
Suffern ACE
@raven: crap. The program where only democrats get the benefits is obviously broken.
GregB
@JPL:
Time to start a rumor that Michelle Obama was Christie’s personal inspiration.
lol
@gene108:
Christie’s problem is that he’s likely to do it again and again in settings that will cost him. NJ voters might not care, but Iowa voters will.
And I don’t see how he gets past Cruz in the southern primaries.
gene108
@Keith G:
But medical inflation has been brought down under the ACA, to everyone’s surprise.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/08/20/2498391/growth-in-health-care-costs-continues-to-decrease-since-passage-of-obamacare/
Kay
@Josie:
I wonder how much of Christie getting along so well with Democrats in his state is due to the vast amount of money that becomes available when one privatizes things like schools and halfway houses.
Christie is leading the privatization effort, but everyone’s making money, truly “both sides”.
gene108
@lol:
It really comes down to which candidate is serious enough to set up campaign infrastructure. For all the rush to back Santorum, Gingrich, Cain, etc. one of the big reasons Romney won is because he had real campaign infrastructure set up all across the country – from offices, to fund raising operations, to advisers, etc. – whereas the other guys just ran on a lark, had very little in the way of actual infrastructure and once the billionaire sugar daddies turned off the cash, they had to drop out.
The candidate with the best infrastructure will most likely win.
If Christie has better infrastructure, he can beat Cruz in the South.
Christie does not have tourettes. He can think and then talk. There’s no indication he’ll be the gaffe machine Biden has been throughout his political career.
nineone
Git Christie Love, y’all!
gene108
@Kay:
It’s not privatization, as much as it is the ability to stick an ‘x’ government project in your district or look the other way, when you have some ethical lapses.
The person in power buys off the opposition, so the opposition tows their line. That’s basically what Christie has done.
Privatizing schools, for example, has met with major push back at townships because people pay property taxes* through the nose in this state and one reason they do it is to have good public schools. Christie’s pushed for charters, but there is, so far a natural fire brake in this state to charters and other school privatization schemes taking off.
* In South Jersey 7-10k a year in property taxes seems to be the norm for a 2,000 sq. ft + house on a quarter acre lot. In North Jersey the property taxes are higher.
MomSense
@Kay:
There is definitely a segment of otherwise progressives who say they support public education but of course their local public school isn’t enough for their brilliant progeny. It’s nothing against public schools – no of course not — but gifted children need options because their needs are not being met. Then they get all enthusiastic about some charter school that gets public and private funding and lo and behold it is not better than the public school because it can’t even open on time because the super efficient (read superior) administrators can’t even make sure they have enough fire extinguishers.
MomSense
Ok just remember this in a couple of years Christie and Madoff sitting in a tree S W I N DL I N G.
We don’t have to make a big deal about it now and let the Repubs double down on their hero. We can just save it for the right time.
TheWumpus
@gene108
You’re ignoring Christie’s entire career in the public eye. The man does not have his temper under control, and never has. The teacher thing, which happened just a few days ago, isn’t the first time he’s snapped at somebody in public. There’s absolutely no reason to think he won’t just continue acting like an asshole from now until 2016.
(A random 2012 quote pulled from Googling “Chris Christie asshole”: – ‘Chris Christie isn’t sorry that he called a Rutgers law student and veteran Navy SEAL an “idiot” during a town hall meeting last week.’)
catclub
@Keith G: Except for Amir K., None of the BJ demogrpahic includes electable people.
shelly
All the old complaints about the Dem’s talent for self-defeating behavior, can now be given to the Wingnuts. God forbid they should nominate someone who has the slightest chance of winning a national election.
Take a gander over at Free Republic; they frigging HATE him.
Another Holocene Human
Christie sounds like he’s running for a cabinet position in the 2016 Dem administration which is coming.
He can’t win a general.
schrodinger's cat
Cruz is the darling of crazy Republicans not Christie.
schrodinger's cat
OT: Brooklyn kittehs weigh in on the election results.
Seanly
@Mark B.:
Until you find the numerous ways around it. I worked with a formerly 600 lb guy who lost lots of weight after bariatric surgery. By the time I knew him he was back to the 350 lb range – he just constantly ate. He came in every morning with a 64 oz cup of sweet tea from Bojangles.
RE: Christie – someone who yells at people in public with the drop of a hat is probably also a boss who yells at underlings. It’s a terrible management style. It might play well for angry white males 29 to 54 but for everyone else it’ll be a complete turn-off.
J R in WV
@mai naem:
But that would have been treason!!!!! That was a war!!!!! This is just insurance, and politics, that’s all. No one would think that any of this opposition to Obamacare is treason, because this is just politics as usual.
I’m really glad the Republicans named the PPACA Obamacare, because decades from now they won’t be able to pretend we never had a progressive and successful BLACK President, because everyone will be getting their health care from Obamacare.
Except for Republicans, who will be seeing Christian Science Practitioners.
ChrisNYC
@Another Holocene Human: Ding! He’s a stalking horse for Jeb. He owes his career to the Bushies and would want AG or DHS secretary.
Bill Arnold
@chopper:
Maybe it’s shallow, but I laughed out loud when hearing about the call on the radio.
TG Chicago
@fuckwit: I don’t think the ACA will look like a disaster in 2016, but I can’t discount the possibility. I mean, you say:
Seems to me that if the corporations and the 1% feel like it’s a disaster, they’re going to make a big stink about it. And, sadly, the media will give them far more of a megaphone to broadcast their stink than they will, say, the millions of Americans who are losing SNAP benefits.
TG Chicago
@Another Holocene Human: Do you think there’s a likely GOP nominee who has a better chance of winning the general than Christie?