Lupica: Chris Christie needs to prove he’s a tough leader, not just talk like it
If Gov. Chris Christie is telling the truth that he didn’t know anything about the George Washington Bridge lane closures beforehand, he just comes up as a political bully whose administration turns out to be a training school for other bullies in New Jersey.
Gov. Chris Christie, left, really became a presidential contender after Hurricane Sandy hit his state hard in 2012. There he was, like a general retaking his own beaches, looking more presidential than President Barack Obama, third from right, with whom he toured storm-stricken parts of New Jersey.
Chris Christie, who sounds like more of a victim these days than Alex Rodriguez, did much better with his last storm, Hurricane Sandy, than with one he wants the whole world to believe should be called Hurricane Bridget.
This new storm, by the way, doesn’t go away just because Christie and his supporters want it to, no matter how many former staffers like Bridget Kelly he fires, and no matter how much sleep he says he’s losing.
Everybody knows that Christie really became a presidential contender after Sandy hit his state as hard as it did. There he was, like a general retaking his own beaches, looking more presidential than the President he stood beside in New Jersey.
Christie was the big, tough-talking Jersey-guy governor, telling anybody who would listen not to feel sorry for him or his state, telling us Jersey was going to be exactly what the commercials — starring him! — eventually told us it would be:
RELATED: CHRISTIE 'DID A GREAT JOB' RESPONDING TO BRIDGEGATE: EXPERT
Stronger than the storm.
Only now Hurricane Bridget hits him and Jersey this way, and Christie, the political boss of all bosses in his state, wrings his hands and says that the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge were conceived and carried out by underbosses, Bridget Kelly chief among them.
Does it finish him as a presidential candidate? Are you kidding — did Gennifer Flowers finish Bill Clinton when he was first running for President? No, this finishes Christie only if he’s lying when he says that he didn’t know anything about the lane closures beforehand. If he’s telling the truth, he just comes up as a political bully whose administration turns out to be a training school for other bullies in New Jersey.
“I am a very sad person today,” Christie said at a press conference at the end of last week that was as long as a feature film.
RELATED: CHRIS CHRISTIE'S CAREER IS OVER IF HE'S LYING ABOUT BRIDGEGATE: GIULIANI
Chris Christie, the political boss of all bosses in New Jersey, wrings his hands and says that the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, shown, were conceived and carried out by underbosses.
CHRIS PEDOTA/CHRIS PEDOTA/THE RECORD
Chris Christie, the political boss of all bosses in New Jersey, wrings his hands and says that the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, shown, were conceived and carried out by underbosses.
Then he said: “I will probably get angry at some point, but I got to tell you the truth. I’m sad. I’m a sad guy standing here today.”
In that moment, the guy went from being Gov. Ralph Kramden, the regular guy who wants to be President, to another old Jackie Gleason character, the Poor Soul.
You know what you kept waiting for the other day with Christie as he did his poor-soul, poor-me routine? For the same kind of real anger he should have shown about those hideous traffic jams back in September, when the great leader he fancies himself to be should have gotten to the bottom of what was going on in Fort Lee, and on that bridge, and started throwing staffers off it then.
You know: the same kind of anger he shows when he doesn’t like a question from a reporter, or in some town hall.
RELATED: STASI: CHRISTIE WILL GET DONE IN BY THE COVER-UP
But the more he tried to explain himself and his staff members and various other political hacks, the more you saw Christie finally begin to shrink in size. Read what he said or listen to what he said, and you start to wonder what will be a better talking point for the opposition when the next presidential season really begins: Christie’s tortured explanations about his role or nonrole in Hurricane Bridget, or Hillary Clinton trying to bring actual light and actual clarity to the subject of Benghazi.
Of course, Christie’s defenders in the bullhorn media want to make any criticism of him part of some vast left-wing, liberal-media conspiracy, as if Andrew Cuomo wouldn’t have gotten banged around this way if his own administration had done something as stupid and small-time as this.
Imagine if Cuomo wanted everybody to declare himself a victim with something like this going on under his nose. You think the same people defending Christie wouldn’t have jumped the governor of New York?
“The reality is you miss a lot of things when you’re running a government as complicated as New Jersey or New York or the United States,” Rudy Giuliani said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” What the former hero mayor of New York apparently means is that guys like Christie get all the credit after a hurricane like Sandy and no real blame for this one.
Christie occasionally likes to call people with whom he disagrees dumb and idiots. It was always supposed to be part of his charm. And if you have ever been in his presence, you know the guy can be charming, and terrific company, and make you understand why he has always connected with voters the way he has, and may in the 2016 campaign.
In the end, though, Christie’s message is that he is more than a bully, that he is a strong leader at a time when the current President looks as weak as he does. Only he is the one who looked and sounded weak the other day. This time the center of the storm isn’t the Jersey Shore. Now we find out how strong he is.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...-tough-leader-article-1.1577315#ixzz2qIQPW3gt
SEE MY OTHER THREAD- Why Bridgegate made headlines but Obama’s IRS scandal didn’t
If Gov. Chris Christie is telling the truth that he didn’t know anything about the George Washington Bridge lane closures beforehand, he just comes up as a political bully whose administration turns out to be a training school for other bullies in New Jersey.
Gov. Chris Christie, left, really became a presidential contender after Hurricane Sandy hit his state hard in 2012. There he was, like a general retaking his own beaches, looking more presidential than President Barack Obama, third from right, with whom he toured storm-stricken parts of New Jersey.
Chris Christie, who sounds like more of a victim these days than Alex Rodriguez, did much better with his last storm, Hurricane Sandy, than with one he wants the whole world to believe should be called Hurricane Bridget.
This new storm, by the way, doesn’t go away just because Christie and his supporters want it to, no matter how many former staffers like Bridget Kelly he fires, and no matter how much sleep he says he’s losing.
Everybody knows that Christie really became a presidential contender after Sandy hit his state as hard as it did. There he was, like a general retaking his own beaches, looking more presidential than the President he stood beside in New Jersey.
Christie was the big, tough-talking Jersey-guy governor, telling anybody who would listen not to feel sorry for him or his state, telling us Jersey was going to be exactly what the commercials — starring him! — eventually told us it would be:
RELATED: CHRISTIE 'DID A GREAT JOB' RESPONDING TO BRIDGEGATE: EXPERT
Stronger than the storm.
Only now Hurricane Bridget hits him and Jersey this way, and Christie, the political boss of all bosses in his state, wrings his hands and says that the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge were conceived and carried out by underbosses, Bridget Kelly chief among them.
Does it finish him as a presidential candidate? Are you kidding — did Gennifer Flowers finish Bill Clinton when he was first running for President? No, this finishes Christie only if he’s lying when he says that he didn’t know anything about the lane closures beforehand. If he’s telling the truth, he just comes up as a political bully whose administration turns out to be a training school for other bullies in New Jersey.
“I am a very sad person today,” Christie said at a press conference at the end of last week that was as long as a feature film.
RELATED: CHRIS CHRISTIE'S CAREER IS OVER IF HE'S LYING ABOUT BRIDGEGATE: GIULIANI
Chris Christie, the political boss of all bosses in New Jersey, wrings his hands and says that the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, shown, were conceived and carried out by underbosses.
CHRIS PEDOTA/CHRIS PEDOTA/THE RECORD
Chris Christie, the political boss of all bosses in New Jersey, wrings his hands and says that the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, shown, were conceived and carried out by underbosses.
Then he said: “I will probably get angry at some point, but I got to tell you the truth. I’m sad. I’m a sad guy standing here today.”
In that moment, the guy went from being Gov. Ralph Kramden, the regular guy who wants to be President, to another old Jackie Gleason character, the Poor Soul.
You know what you kept waiting for the other day with Christie as he did his poor-soul, poor-me routine? For the same kind of real anger he should have shown about those hideous traffic jams back in September, when the great leader he fancies himself to be should have gotten to the bottom of what was going on in Fort Lee, and on that bridge, and started throwing staffers off it then.
You know: the same kind of anger he shows when he doesn’t like a question from a reporter, or in some town hall.
RELATED: STASI: CHRISTIE WILL GET DONE IN BY THE COVER-UP
But the more he tried to explain himself and his staff members and various other political hacks, the more you saw Christie finally begin to shrink in size. Read what he said or listen to what he said, and you start to wonder what will be a better talking point for the opposition when the next presidential season really begins: Christie’s tortured explanations about his role or nonrole in Hurricane Bridget, or Hillary Clinton trying to bring actual light and actual clarity to the subject of Benghazi.
Of course, Christie’s defenders in the bullhorn media want to make any criticism of him part of some vast left-wing, liberal-media conspiracy, as if Andrew Cuomo wouldn’t have gotten banged around this way if his own administration had done something as stupid and small-time as this.
Imagine if Cuomo wanted everybody to declare himself a victim with something like this going on under his nose. You think the same people defending Christie wouldn’t have jumped the governor of New York?
“The reality is you miss a lot of things when you’re running a government as complicated as New Jersey or New York or the United States,” Rudy Giuliani said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” What the former hero mayor of New York apparently means is that guys like Christie get all the credit after a hurricane like Sandy and no real blame for this one.
Christie occasionally likes to call people with whom he disagrees dumb and idiots. It was always supposed to be part of his charm. And if you have ever been in his presence, you know the guy can be charming, and terrific company, and make you understand why he has always connected with voters the way he has, and may in the 2016 campaign.
In the end, though, Christie’s message is that he is more than a bully, that he is a strong leader at a time when the current President looks as weak as he does. Only he is the one who looked and sounded weak the other day. This time the center of the storm isn’t the Jersey Shore. Now we find out how strong he is.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...-tough-leader-article-1.1577315#ixzz2qIQPW3gt
SEE MY OTHER THREAD- Why Bridgegate made headlines but Obama’s IRS scandal didn’t
