Brain dead Republican Party

“Is Christie ready to be president?

By Dan Balz, Wednesday, September 28, 1:11 PM

It was about this time five years ago when political strategist David Axelrod sat down and wrote a memo to then-Sen. Barack Obama, who was seriously considering whether to run for president after months and months of saying he would not.

“History is replete with potential candidates for presidency who waited too long rather than examples of people who ran too soon. . . . You will never be hotter than you are right now.. . . In short, there are many reasons to believe that if you are ever to run for presidency this is the time.”

Those words could easily be included in a memo that one of Chris Christie’s advisers might be sending to the New Jersey governor now, for many of the same elements that led Axelrod to encourage Obama to run in 2008 apply to Christie at this moment.

Christie’s blunt style has captured the imaginations of many Republicans, as Obama’s hope-and-change message stirred Democrats then. He is a fresh face in a party that is in transition and looking for something more than it sees on the horizon. He is being encouraged to run by ordinary citizens, wealthy fundraisers and party leaders who see an opportunity for victory in 2012 and don’t want to let it slip away.

Axelrod’s memo contained another piece of advice relevant to Christie’s decision-making, which is that the incumbent president defines the coming election and that, if there is unrest in the country, voters will be looking not for a replica but for a replacement. Whatever negative qualities they see in the incumbent, they will be looking for the opposite.

Axelrod was speaking of the qualities of leadership of then-President George W. Bush that had left the country deeply unhappy. He described them as stubbornness, hyperpartisanship and a tendency to place ideology over reason. Axelrod argued that Obama, better than any other potential Democratic candidate in 2008, fit the moment. “You are uniquely suited for these times,” he wrote.

Five years later, after persistent economic problems and a breakdown in government in Washington, the perceptions of Obama have changed, which is why he is vulnerable in next year’s election. To some Republicans, no one offers a more distinctive alternative to Obama’s style of leadership than Christie.

Republican challengers to Obama will make the argument that both different policies and a different kind of leadership are needed to get the country moving, which was part of Christie’s goal when he spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday night. He outlined that case against the president in ways designed to draw obvious comparisons with his own hard-charging style.

Christie belittled Obama as a “bystander in the Oval Office” and a chief executive who lacks the courage to lead. “We hope,” he added, “that he will shake off the paralysis that has made it impossible for him to take on the really big things that are obvious to all Americans and to a watching and anxious world community.”

He sought to portray Obama as a passive actor and himself as Mr. Take Charge. There is a simple rule for effective governance, he said: “When there is a problem, you fix it. That is the job you have been sent to do, and you cannot wait for someone else to do it for you.””

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Assumed office
January 19, 2010

Lieutenant

Kim Guadagno

Preceded by

Jon Corzine

United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey

In office
January 17, 2002 – December 1, 2008[1]

Nominated by

George W. Bush

Preceded by

Robert Cleary

Succeeded by

Ralph Marra (Acting)

Personal details

Born

Christopher James Christie
September 6, 1962 (age 49)
Newark, New Jersey

Political party

Republican

Spouse(s)

Mary Pat Foster

Children

Andrew (b. 1993)
Sarah (b. 1996)
Patrick (b. 2000)
Bridget (b. 2003)

Residence

Mendham

Alma mater

University of Delaware
Seton Hall University

Religion

Roman Catholic”