Can Christie Escape?

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by GPK

I have never believed in this whole line of thinking. I know the political world is different, but you don't hire/appoint people to only micromanage them to death, unless you want to fail miserably.
I fully believe his now ex-DCOS (and a great many of them too) would attempt to pull of a stunt of this nature. Power is a very potent stimulant.

Why would he have no shot in hell of being the candidate?

Hope you're well.

Hi, Handsome! Always happy to have a chance to chat with you, over politics or anything. You know I never take this stuff personally (Our family is such a blend of Democrats and Republicans that nobody could or holiday dinners would be yearly disasters!)

Even prior to Bridgegazi, I didn't think he had a chance to be the candidate because while political bullying goes over well with the NY/NJ crowd, it doesn't play well in the rest of the nation (see Giuliani and his primary attempts). It's why Charles Schumer won't go farther than a Senator (if you want an example of a bully who's a Democrat). In addition, while Christie's alleged bipartisanship (which is really a media creation, but that's another story) plays well in the media (natch), it won't play well in the primaries. Primary voters don't want a bipartisan; they want someone on the extreme end of their party views. Christie is not really all that moderate, but primary voters won't see that; they'll see what the media spins, and that's a moderate.

Plus, prior to this mess, there was a whole bushel basketful of scandals that he kept under the rug that I don't think he'd have been able to keep under the rug in a national election. There are politicians who can, but they usually are ultra-wealthy or are capable of inspiring extraordinary loyalty in the people that work for them (the Bushes and the Clintons manage that, to give an example from each side of the aisle).

And being a bully isn't a bad thing if you want to win in New York/New Jersey politics (again, see Schumer, who beat D'Amato back in 2000 by getting right into the gutter with him), but not if you want to go farther.

I'll see if I can find the piece I read yesterday about previous Christie things that were swept under the rug. In the meantime, here's an eloquent essay from David Simon (creator of The Wire, which I finally got around to watching this year, ten years after it debuted and it's awesome) about the scandal:
http://davidsimon.com/the-highways-j...broken-heroes/