Yes, he'll be the one to bring us together. The good Republican, the centrist, the thoughtful one, like days of yore. Or, as Charles P. Pierce puts it:
... the only issue in the election became whether or not you think Chris Christie should run for president. And 31 percent of the liberals who voted assented to that proposition. How the hell did that happen on a night when the state also kicked him squarely in the nuts by overwhelmingly reversing his veto of an increase in the minimum wage, a veto that is the perfect expression of everything Chris Christie stands for as a politician? If you want to know why actual liberalism continues to be a dead parrot in our politics, and why the only real political dynamic in the country revolves around a choice over whether we will drift slowly to the right or stampede headlong in that direction, look to that number.
There is no reason on god's earth why a self-identified liberal would vote for Chris Christie. He's a tool of the ascendant oligarchy, awful on women's rights, terrible on infrastructure, very high on union-busting, and a short-tempered, thin-skinned bully into the bargain...
Chris Christie is a scary dude. Like good'n godly Mike Huckabee, he can grin and dip a little when he says hateful stuff, kinda make you smile, even like the guy if you don't listen too carefully. And there he was that time, all friendly-like with Barack H. Obama, as they watched New Jersey wash out to sea. Gotta like that part, right?
Well, he's not as insane as Michele Bachmann or Louis Gohmert, not as duplicitous as Mitt Romney, might know arithmetic better than Paul Ryan, although that remains to be seen. But he can put his finger in the wind good as the rest of them, when votes matter. Back off his anti-gay stuff for a moment or two, leading up to an election.
But Charlie's right: for anyone who considers her/himself a liberal, or a progressive, or one who has an ounce of concern for wealth inequality and its ability to wreck our country; for anyone who believes that public education -- good and effective public education -- is the core of a functioning democracy and that it needs to be available to all; for a person who considers government spending on science and research and infrastructure of value; for a person who believes any of that to find Chris Christie a compelling presidential candidate is to be no better than a teabagger who votes against his/her own interest because the plutocrats behind that movement convinced them that the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and that turning public education into bible school is a formula for American success.
I'm betting he'll be the nominee. The process should be entertaining. The outcome, possibly really awful. I'd love to be wrong on all counts.
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