Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
He reminds us that he holds some distinctly squishy positions.
From Politico:
In vetoing a bill (S2946) that would have required New Jersey to stay in a regional program intended to curb greenhouse gases — a program Christie plans to leave by the end of the year — the governor said "climate change is real."
He added that "human activity plays a role in these changes" and that climate change is "impacting our state."
Bottom line in my mind: no one candidate is going to make every conservative voter happy. Had we all been Ricochet-ing back in '80 I'm sure we'd have had plenty to grumble about with Reagan. There is no 'perfect' candidate. So let's just get the final field assembled, wind 'em up, point 'em in the right direction and see through the primaries who we like best to take on Obama.
- Comment (47)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (4)
Comments :
Oct '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Yeah but look at the story. Cristie is listening to people outside the elite bubble--and even if his personal beliefs are not what we'd like, he nonetheless listened to their concerns and left the interstate compact. What more could we want?
Oct '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
My ideal candidate is somebody who can energize the base and has broad appeal.
Aug '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Had we all been Ricochet-ing back in '80 I'm sure we'd have had plenty to grumble about with Reagan.
Brilliant, and true.
Mar '11
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
"My ideal candidate is somebody who can energize the base and has broad appeal"
Have you considered that those two features, as you've described them, may be in opposition to one another?
Jun '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Read this Andy McCarthy piece to see how dangerous Christie's view of Islamism is. He had become quite chummy with an Iman connected to terrorism, and calls anyone who is suspicious of the Islamist influenece "crazies." This is my biggest problems with Christie. I greatly admire what he has accomplished, but this area needs major work.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/273865/christies-crazies-andrew-c-mccarthy#
He appointed Sohail Mohammed to a state bench. Mohammed "served as a board member for an Islamist organization, the American Muslim Union, which, as Commentary’s Jonathan S. Tobin and terrorism expert Steve Emerson have shown, has a checkered past of rationalizing jihadist attacks and supporting jihadists.
Indeed, when the Holy Land Foundation was shuttered in 2001 for its facilitation of terrorist groups, Mohammed told the Bergen Record that the federal government was unjustly singling out Muslim organizations. Seven years later, a jury convicted several HLF operatives for channeling millions of dollars to Hamas, the terrorist organization that is the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch. Mohammed also ripped the Justice Department’s prosecution of al-Arian as a “witch-hunt” and a “politically motivated indictment.”
Feb '11
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
StickerShock: Read this Andy McCarthy piece to see how dangerous Christie's view of Islamism is.
I have steadily maintained that Christie's appeal will diminish greatly once all his positions become better known. The YouTube star is only one face. It is revealing in many ways and not without a certain appeal, but also tends to distract from much that is unsettling. His comments on Islam, gun control and AGW for starters are like distant flashes of lightning. Republicans would do well to heed them.
May '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
I'll say again that I think his obesity is an issue. He should stay governor of New Jersey, lose 200 pounds, and run in 2020, when Ryan or Palin steps down. Of course, by then I'll probably favor Scott Walker or Bob McDonnell.
Jun '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
I think AGW is not as worrisome. He did veto a bad bill that would have kept NJ hostage to environmentalist nonsense. I think his comments were mild enough that he was clearly just playing politics, throwing a bone to the green lobby. Of course, I much prefer that he be bold like Perry on the issue, and just state candidly that the science has been corrupted for years and the danger of global warming was played up to gain political power.
For me, his embrace of Islamists and his foolish gun control comments are incredibly worrisome.
I have friends who have worked with him and consider him a bully. They are lifelong Democrats, so it's really hard say if they are being unbiased in their assessment. He's at least put Jersey back on the right track.....something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.
Jun '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
" lose 200 pounds "
200? I think that's a bit of overkill. He's a big guy with a big frame. Maybe 100 is a good target.
Are you thinking that his obesity shows a character weakness? Lack of impulse control? Or just the cosmetic issue of him being an unappeling candidate because he's so fat?
Feb '11
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
People generally have a metabolic balance point, which varies from individual to individual, where they maintain their weight . The body has no interest in or knowledge of federal guidelines. The body wants to return to its balance point which, obviously, is genetically determined. That is why it is so hard to lose weight and keep it off. Aesthetics are a social construct and constitute an entirely different problem.
That aside, anyone who believes in AGW is suspect. It implies credulousness and ignorance and/or autocratic tendencies. If Christie is implying the he agrees with it for purely cynical political reasons, that is not much better.
Christie is a good match for New Jersey. NJ is not a red state. It is at best deep purple and that is where, except in fiscal matters, Christie resides. Christie is good for New Jersey. Desperate as the national fiscal situation is, it is not the only crucial issue the country faces, international affairs being in an equally disastrous state and social issues not far behind. We need a president who can excel at handling all those issues. Judging from some of his less publicized utterances, Christie is not that man.
Edited on Aug 20, 2011 at 9:36amFeb '11
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
(continued)
Returning to AGW, Christie's comment, as quoted above, that "Climate change is real" is, of course, true. Climate has been changing for four and a half billion years. It will continue to do so. The AGW argument, on the other hand, is based on demonstrably false data and deliberate omission of data that contradicts the desired conclusions. The models generating the apocalyptic outcomes bandied about by the AGW advocates are as corrupt as the data being input. If Christie is merely mouthing a politically correct platitude to blunt criticism of his veto, that's one thing. If he is vetoing something he believes is valid but fiscally inconvenient it casts a completely different light on his fitness for national office.
I am not a one issue voter. No single issue disqualifies a candidate. In the case of Christie I am seeing a pattern across a number of unrelated issues that I find disturbing. Christie is not the only candidate, or potential candidate, to have this problem. I am perfectly willing to keep an open mind and be proven wrong. In Christie's case, I do not see the evidence forthcoming.
Edited on Aug 20, 2011 at 9:57amAug '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Crow's Nest: "My ideal candidate is somebody who can energize the base and has broad appeal"
Have you considered that those two features, as you've described them, may be in opposition to one another? · Aug 20 at 3:30am
Squishy = White House.
Base beloved hard___ = keep your day job.
Feb '11
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
In one respect it will be disappointing if Christie doesn't run and become the nominee, and I don't think he will. We will miss the spectacle of a Christie-Obama debate. The ensuing inevitable demolition of the greatest orator since Pericles would be one of the most memorable events in US election history.
May '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
The only reason that Christie's name keeps coming up over and over is because the activist Republican electorate has been, from the beginning, focused on cheap thrills- that is, confrontational and "gotcha" You Tube moments rather than policy positions and genuinely useful governance qualities.
Hence the fascination as well with Bachmann, and some seemingly seriously wanting to drag Marco Rubio into the race- after all of 6 months in statewide office at a very young age- just because he talks well on TV. I refer to this phenomenon as the Conservative Gorbasm Quest.
It is nothing more than the desire to get cheap political thrills in debates against glib Obama. We should not be playing the same game the Left did in 2008. If we were in our right minds, we would not be discussing Christie for national office until after he had 6 years in office as NJ governor and established a lasting track record to make up for his squishiness on certain Islamist groups and misdirected environmental activism.
Dec '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
I can't avoid using this analogy:
Carbon dioxide is 0.04% of the atmosphere. (If you want to test someone's ignorance of science, ask them what the third-most prevalent gas in the atmosphere is.)
So, if there is a greenhouse effect, it is like having a greenhouse made of 10000 windows, 9996 of which are smashed out.
May '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Just another issue that makes me prefer Ryan. It's a nanny state issue. On the Islamic thing, I go back to Ryan's foreign policy speech at the Alexander Hamilton Society. He gets it...
Jun '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Squishy Blue RINO
Crow's Nest: "My ideal candidate is somebody who can energize the base and has broad appeal"
Have you considered that those two features, as you've described them, may be in opposition to one another? · Aug 20 at 3:30am
Squishy = White House.
Base beloved hard___ = keep your day job. · Aug 20 at 9:28am
Was Reagan squishy?
Naturally, there is tension between these two. This is democracy. Energizing the base is essential. Then you add as much broad appeal as can be gained without compromising anything major. Get what's free for the asking. It's a very difficult balancing act that is, in its essence, amoral. Morality only comes into play after inauguration day -- in the actions that a president takes.
Nov '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Christie gets some important things right: He gets public-sector unions right, and so he is, to borrow from Conan Doyle, as tenacious as a bulldog in attempting to break their stranglehold on the political process.
His climate stance doesn't necessarily bother me. As noted above, the climate is changing. So? I'm not a scientist--and even if I were, evidently one is only qualified to weigh in if one has earned the climatology merit badge--so I don't know whether or not there is any real evidence of anthropogenic global warning. I can't make any sense of the "studies."
But this much is obvious, even to a girl who took "rocks for jocks" to meet her college science credits: Even if AGW is real, the costs of most anti-AGW policies far, far outweigh the benefits. Why is this so difficult for conservative candidates to express to ordinary folk like myself? Examples of the excesses of these policies are thick on the ground. Incorporate them in speeches. Help Americans to understand the nearer-term opportunity cost of pursuing policies that may or may not ever have any effect on climate change.
Apr '11
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
I'm not a proponent of anti global warming policies. In fact I rather hate them and think they are both unneccesary and expensive, but I find that too many "conservatives" view the whole issue of climate change in a rather unrealistic frame. The climate is changing! It always changes so we should not be to alarmist, but we should note that things are changing. The conservative attitude should be a wait and see and do more research, rather then be dismissive, or assume that humans could not play a role in climate change.
We know that human activity does impact the environment at least locally. What we can not be certain of is how much we impact it globally, or what the future effects of our activities will really be. I consider it rather ironic for people in this forum to dismiss AGW theories as nonsense considering that its proponents are trying to do to the AGW skeptics.
Sorry, I find the debate of research and scientific theories in such a curt manner to be both stupid and unproductive.
Conservatives should not argue about the science of global warming we should argue the policies and politics of it.
Jun '10
Re: Just When People Started Getting Excited About a Christie 2012 Run...
Layla: ...
Even if AGW is real, the costs of most anti-AGW policies far, far outweigh the benefits. Why is this so difficult for conservative candidates to express to ordinary folk like myself? Examples of the excesses of these policies are thick on the ground. Incorporate them in speeches. Help Americans to understand the nearer-term opportunity cost of pursuing policies that may or may not ever have any effect on climate change.
Very well said.
Layla: ...
I'm not a scientist--and even if I were, evidently one is only qualified to weigh in if one has earned the climatology merit badge--so I don't know whether or not there is any real evidence of anthropogenic global warning. I can't make any sense of the "studies."
One way of a voter to analyze complex subjects is to see who is behind them. This never tells the whole story but it gives one a starting point. Both the people promoting AGW and the proposed remedies are deeply suspicious in themselves. I am convinced that AGW is junk science but even if I didn't I would think twice before aligning myself with the socialists involved in this subject.