Jeb Lund, at the Guardian:
Chris Christie is now officially running for president – and what makes Chris Christie special is that he is running because he is running, and because what are you going to do about it? The animating purpose of Christie’s entire career is one regionally-accented hostile tautology: why is Chris Christie in the race? Indeed, why does Chris Christie do anything? Because f-you, that’s why…
But it is very difficult to conduct a campaign as the man who is a “solution” to “Washington” when you have multiple staffers under indictment, have inched close to threat of indictment yourself or are actually under indictment. Christie has the first two and may hit the trifecta – as may Scott Walker. (Rick Perry is under indictment, but he wears it well, because his demeanor is a man who seems unaware that he is under indictment, which is consistent with his theme of being unaware of most things.)…
The most dynamic and interesting thing Christie could do now would be to pivot left – bully his fellow Republicans for living in the past when it comes to Obamacare and same sex marriage, tell them to get real, get a life and get with the 21st Century. He could tell audiences that the other candidates could never win because they don’t get it, stomp across the stage like a conservative Howard Beale delivering a purple-state reckoning to every schoolyard joker trying to build a government in a sandbox instead of in the real world where bullies can kick them apart and deliver real life lessons. It would be mesmerizing.
But that’s completely unrealistic, because it would stop the end goals of the Chris-Christie-for-Chris-Christie train – the local to nowhere that stops at every ATM. That truth-teller schtick only pays the bills if you believe it, and the only people Christie has ever kicked the crap out of on his way up have been straw men and targets of opportunity. He doesn’t swing at big checkbooks or institutions, certainly nothing solid enough to bruise the glad hand. And, when this is all over, if no indictments hold, having outclassed dead-enders like Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, George Pataki, Bobby Jindal and a few others, he will be there at the top, with Donald Trump – brands to the last, available to speak for certain fees, never having sold out apart from that first fatal sale that embarked on a life that reached its soul terminus here…
Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:
…[N]ow that Chris Christie is out there tellin’ it like it is, taking his 30 percent approval rating in New Jersey out for a spin, it seems a waste of time to point out that Big Chicken’s candidacy is less popular than brucellosis in Iowa, and that, at the moment, he’s pushing in all his chips on New Hampshire, where he is currently edging out Dr. Ben Carson. (Also, in one poll, 55 percent of Republicans said they wouldn’t vote for him under any circumstances.)…
Nate Cohn, at the NYTimes, dutifully tinkertoys a potential “Path to Relevance“…
…[M]any candidates with little or no chance to win the nomination nonetheless play a big role in presidential primaries, and Mr. Christie could be one of them. He could drain votes from Jeb Bush, widening the opening for Marco Rubio or even improving Scott Walker’s odds to win both Iowa and New Hampshire…
If Mr. Christie’s campaign took off, it would mainly be at Mr. Bush’s expense. It is hard to see Mr. Bush winning Iowa, where the most conservative voters reign, which makes it all but necessary for him to win New Hampshire. A weaker Mr. Bush would give Mr. Rubio a better chance to win New Hampshire, which might be as important to his chances as it is to those of Mr. Bush. It would also give Mr. Walker a better chance of following a win in Iowa with a win of his own in New Hampshire.
But in all those situations, Mr. Christie probably goes back to New Jersey.
Jamelle Bouie, at Slate, uses Christie to explain why one should “Never Wait to Run for President“:
… Christie’s prospects have changed sharply from three years ago. Then, Christie was the strongest commodity in the Republican Party. Uncompromising and pugnacious, he fought pitched battles against public sector unions before Scott Walker had ever touched the national stage… By early 2011, top Republican donors were begging Christie to enter the race. They wanted a credible and exciting alternative to the milquetoast Mitt Romney and his lackluster challengers. Christie refused…
We’ll see how Christie’s story ends. But thus far, it illustrates an important rule—perhaps the only real rule—of presidential politics: If you have a shot, you should take it. The United States has an endless supply of people who want to be president; by waiting, you up the odds that one of them will get in your way, or surpass you entirely…
Even if you stay ascendant or at least relevant, you have to deal with the damage that inevitably comes with tenure in public office. The longer you’re governor, the more chances you have to disappoint your constituents, court a scandal, or just get stuck in the inevitable, everyday grumpiness of governing. A Chris Christie who jumps into the race in 2011 is a Chris Christie who never has to deal with Bridgegate…
As far as I can tell, Mr. Pierce is the wordsmith responsible for the “Big Chicken” moniker. For some history, here’s a link to something Pierce wrote at the beginning of last year:
Today’s required reading is Alec MacGillis’s long-eyed view of Chris Christie’s long career of gettin’ some sugar as something of a politician in New Jersey. Suffice it to say, it did not start at the George Washington Bridge. The man’s entire career, as limned by MacGillis, makes him out to be a kind of Huey Long with helicopters…
the more I read about this, the more I am convinced that what we’re dealing with here is an information-age Kingfish, who found a state, not that he could loot, but that he could use as a vehicle for his political ambition, and he fashioned a pleasing personality through which he could take control, but, at every stage, when it came to a choice between that personality and that ambition, the former always — a-l-w-a-y-s — gave way…
Has magical power to make traffic jams happen, and state pension money vanish
–>
https://t.co/PEmPtSsKIi
— Billmon (@billmon1) June 30, 2015
Chris Christie gave retiree assets to hedge fund managers bankrolling his political career: http://t.co/Lb4Ap7iBvw pic.twitter.com/Ppl8oSAmmF
— The Nation (@thenation) June 30, 2015
"Nobody here but us chickens."
pic.twitter.com/2mQycajJjV
— Billmon (@billmon1) June 30, 2015
Amir Khalid
Even if he weren’t at risk of indictment, even if he weren’t stuck in the no-man’s-land between the serious Presidential contenders and the fringe candidates, Chris Christie’s got one unique disadvantage: his temper is only ever one minor provocation away from exploding all over his chances. I tend to think he’s running now only because, having already made his intentions known, he’d lose face if he acknowledged he had no chance and quit.
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: Hi you.
I agree. I also agree with the writer (Charlie Pierce?) who pointed out that he missed his chance in 2011. Thank goodness he missed that chance.
mdblanche
How many GOP candidates are we up to now? Have we hit Graham’s number yet?
NotMax
With all due deference to Mr. Pierce, Foghorn Leghorn is the one and only Big Chicken. Christie, the Big Phonus Bolonus, is Giulani without the charm. :)
Those with political memories which reach farther back than the last month with an R in it recall the Dubya administration’s hacking and packing of U.S. Attorney offices and their smug joy at bringing in Christie, touting him as “our kind” of fellow.
That endorsement alone ought to be disqualifying.
Mustang Bobby
Using “Telling It Like It Is” brings back the ghost of Howard Cosell, which is enough to fend off any number of people who remember that loudmouth.
NotMax
@Mustang Bobby
Funny, takes me think back to Aaron Neville.
But then, I’m old. ;)
Major Major Major Major
I do like the image of him storming his fat ass around the stage during the debates though.
Waldo
Hope he hangs in there long enough to participate in a debate. It would be great to see him shout down a moderator or take on Jeb in an arrogance off.
Origuy
@mdblanche:
We’re approaching Avogadro’s Number.
TriassicSands
Christy has a problem. He’s a loud-mouthed bully. No, that’s not his problem — Repubicans love thuggish blowhards. Christy’s problem is that he’s not the only, or even the biggest loud-mouthed bully in the race. He’s got to contend with Donald Trump, who can blow and bully with the best of them. Why, his foreign policy, even with our friends, amounts to little more than telling them what their gonna do and when their gonna do it and their gonna like it or face the consequences, and by the way eff you! Europe’s going to love having the Donald lecture them on every imaginable subject all with the punchline being “You suck so shut-up and do as you’re told. With all his other problems, Christy faces a real challenge — which loud-mouthed bully can alienate the most people the soonest. My money’s on Trump. He makes Christy seem like a refined, even elegant scholar.
mikefromArlington
Nice image.
Has anyone heard or seen the PUMA crowd yet? lol. Remember them?
No doubt someone will find a reason to resurrect that farce.
Tommy
I am officially announcing I am running for President. Seems I am about the only person not running so I guess I should.
MattF
@Origuy: Graham’s number is bigger. Much bigger. A cosmologist (on her day off, I’d guess) calculated that if you ever ‘understand’ the size of Graham’s number your brain would collapse into a black hole. A consequence of the Holographic Principle, apparently.
opiejeanne
@Tommy: That’s funny!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Do you have a PAC? Colbert showed that a Super PAC can be very profitable.
Tommy
@MattF: I had to Google Graham’s number. I wasn’t sure what you were talking about. I so love not knowing everything and having to figure it out. I get it now :).
MattF
@Tommy: You can try the googology website for big number information all in one place.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: Oh I will figure out a way to make a buck. Isn’t that part of why most people run?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Usually speaking fees or a Faux Noise gig.
Tommy
@MattF: I have never been good with numbers. A few years ago I read a book about the history of zero. There is a history behind it. I had no clue. Numbers are so powerful things.
mclaren
Like every other Democrat, I enjoy the spectacle of the Republican presidential candidates for 2015 making fools and tools of themselves.
I’m starting to suspect, though, that this kind of light entertainment has turned into what Herbert Marcuse called “repressive sublimation” — it’s a way for the System (corporate crony military-industrial capitalism, AKA “inverted fascism”) to co-opt dissent and distract people who might usefully criticize the System from the real problems barreling down on them like a locomotive racing toward a cow trapped on the tracks.
What are the real problems facing Americans in 2015?
I think that’s clear, Bernie Sanders has enunciated them.
Source: Bernie Sanders presidential candidacy announcement, 2015.
Yves Smith has offered a blunter version over at Naked Capitalism:
Folks, all this yuck-yuck, let’s-have-fun-bashing-the-Republican-front-men stuff is a distraction, and a dangerous one. The truly dangerous Republicans are the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes — the (mostly) nameless or largely unknown billionaires like that guy on the Wal-Mart board who constantly proclaimed that “Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living,” guys like Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers, et al.
The people you folks are laughing and giggling and snickering at and dancing up and down at how foolish they are…these people are just the front men, the torpedos, the hired muscles. The real Al Capones are the dangerous ones, and they’re laughing at you because in states like Wisconsin they are winning and winning and winning, they’re driving back the New Deal, crushing the middle class, and enriching the top 1% at a startling rate.
Amir Khalid
@mclaren:
TL; DR.
Kay
This is great. No one needs to write about him ever again
Alex S.
Strange how these exploratory stages of a campaign almost always lead to an actual campaign. I mean, Christie, if he were a rational person, really should have come to the conclusion that his campaign makes less sense by the day. Jindal is a similar case. Did they really “feel the momentum”? Were people excited about them? And yet, they jump in. Christie’s entrance reminds me of comedy skits in which a fat man tries to enter an already overcrowded tiny car.
Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey
@mclaren: Hey, I’m voting for Bernie in the primary, but as ever we focus way, way, way too much attention on the Presidency and almost none on Congress. It really doesn’t matter who’s in the White House if Congress is still wholly owned by the Kochs.
Congress runs the show, guys, and there needs to be coordinated campaign across the nation to find, support, and actually elect enough Congressmen and Senators to push back. That’s the hard bit.
chopper
@Amir Khalid:
turd-in-the-punch-bowl concern trolling.
Snarki, child of Loki
Oh man…
…everybody better watch out when Christie JUMPS IN THE POOL!
Especially since the pool already has Santorum in it.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Here’s the key (quoting maclaren):
One may agree or disagree, but there’s a reasonable argument there.
Cervantes
@Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey:
For what it’s worth, I agree, and I’m pretty sure we’re not alone.
Why, then, does so much of the conversation (not only here) focus on the presidency (or simply lambaste the Republican candidates for president)? Perhaps because it’s easier or more enjoyable? Occam’s razor might lead us to think so.
rikyrah
@Tommy:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Chris
I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I remember something being mentioned on Balloon Juice a couple weeks ago where Christie had offended big donors by treating them like, well, the same way Christie treats everyone, instead of bowing and kissing their ring and licking their shoes the way these people expect.
That was the moment when I said “Chris Christie’s campaign is screwed.”
jhsnyder
@snarki 27
+1
Gretchen
@Waldo: I love the idea of an “arrogance-off”
Feathers
@TriassicSands: The other problems is that Christie obviously wants to be liked. Trump thinks he should be worshipped and anyone who isn’t doing so is a shithead loser. But you can feel Christie’s pain at not being one of the cool kids. The mouthing off isn’t from a place of strength.
low-tech cyclist
During the mid-1990s, I taught math at an evangelical Christian college. When Dan Quayle, a politician many of them unfortunately thought well of, decided to skip 1996 and wait for 2000, I made this same point in a discussion with some of my students. By the 2000 cycle, I said, somebody is going to come along and occupy Quayle’s niche. That person’s gonna be that year’s model, and Quayle will be yesteryear’s news. “Who?” they asked. “I have no idea, but there are always new people coming along. There will be somebody.”
Of course, that somebody was GWB, who was basically a more politically savvy version of Quayle. Quayle ran in 2000, but hardly anyone noticed.
So yeah: if you’re a pol considering running for President, you seize the moment.
Hungry Joe
@Tommy: You’re going to need a bumper sticker/logo. Jeb! already has the exclamation point, so how about:
Tommy …
or,
Tommy;
or,
Tommy?
or (my fave)
TOMMY???
Hey, just trying to help out.
StringOnAStick
@Feathers: That’s why his announcement was held at his former high school, where he was president of his class.
I heard part of his announcement speech; somehow I don’t think that promising to be someone willing to compromise is all that attractive to the batshit no-compromise rethug base.