Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Chris Christie Praises Obama Sandy Response

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been working tirelessly to ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president but has been effusive in praising Obama’s leadership during Hurricane Sandy.

James Joyner
21

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been working tirelessly to ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president but has been effusive in praising Obama’s leadership during Hurricane Sandy.

The Hill (“Gov. Christie praises Obama response to Hurricane Sandy as ‘outstanding’“):

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) praised President Obama’s work to help states battered by Hurricane Sandy as “outstanding” Tuesday, but cautioned that the recovery would be a prolonged effort.

Christie, a prominent surrogate for GOP candidate Mitt Romney, said Obama had moved quickly to help designate his state a disaster area to better expedite federal assistance.

“The federal government’s response has been great. I was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president, personally, he has expedited the designation of New Jersey as a major disaster area,” said Christie, in an interview with NBC’s “Today.”

“Last night, I was on the phone with FEMA at 2 a.m. this morning to answer the questions they needed answered to get that designation and the president has been outstanding in this. The folks at FEMA, [Administrator] Craig Fugate and his folks have been excellent,” he continued.

In a separate interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Christie added to the praise, saying that “the president has been all over this and deserves great credit.” ”He gave me his number at the White House and told me to call him if I needed anything,” he added.

Obama is going to win New Jersey by a large margin regardless. But it’s good to see politics put aside for a few minutes during national crises.

Update (Doug Mataconis): This interview of Christie by Fox’s Steve Doocy is particularly revealing. Doocy tries to steer Christie into a discussion about politics and Christie won’t take the bait:

That video is posted on the Governor’s official YouTube page.

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21 responses to “Chris Christie Praises Obama Sandy Response”

  1. Brian Lehman Avatar
    Brian Lehman

    Can’t wait to see the conservatives pile on him for praising Obama. Sad that’s the world we live in now.

  2. sam Avatar
    sam

    Well, Chris’s politics aren’t my politics, and they’re certainly not the president’s, but he’s no bullshitter. Wish we had more like him.

  3. mantis Avatar
    mantis

    RINO!

  4. Stonetools Avatar
    Stonetools

    So I guess Christie isn’t in favor of privatizing FEMA? Maybe he didn’t get the memo from Romney. Well, that was Romney’s position last week. This week, who knows?

  5. Davebo Avatar
    Davebo

    Chris Christie Praises Obama Sandy Response

    But he should probably stay out of Atlantic City for a while.

  6. Franklin Avatar
    Franklin

    He continues to call it like he sees it.

  7. OzarkHillbilly Avatar
    OzarkHillbilly

    Doocy tries to steer Christie into a discussion about politics and Christie won’t take the bait:

    I love the insipid grin on Doocy’s face after Christie slapped him down.

  8. Jenos Idanian #13 Avatar
    Jenos Idanian #13

    Christie’s a good guy. And Davebo? EVERYONE should stay out of Atlantic City for a while. Frelling idiot mayor…

    And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character.

  9. bk Avatar
    bk

    And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character.

    Romney also announced that today’s rally in Ohio would be a “relief rally”. The press passes are labeled “Romney/Ryan Victory Rally 10/30/12. I think THAT “shows the guy’s character”.

  10. bk Avatar
    bk

    Oh, and they played a campaign video to warm up the crowd. But of course, since he publicly announced that he was suspending all “campaign events” for today, I guess that this isn’t a “campaign event” per se.

  11. mantis Avatar
    mantis

    @Jay Tea’s puppet Jenos Idanian #13:

    And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character.

    He made people wait in line with their donations for an hour until he showed up to personally accept them for the cameras. And if you believe he wasn’t doing this to help himself in the election, you are dreaming. The entire thing was a photo op. Random collections of goods are not particularly helpful to the Red Cross in the midst of an ongoing disaster.

  12. MM Avatar
    MM

    @OzarkHillbilly: Insipid grin is pretty much Doocy’s only expression.

  13. sam Avatar
    sam

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character.

    🙂

  14. Mr. Replica Avatar
    Mr. Replica

    Random collections of goods are not particularly helpful to the Red Cross in the midst of an ongoing disaster.

    From the Red Cross website, not a tweet.

    I would like to donate clothes, cars or other items to charity. Does the American Red Cross accept donated goods?

    Unfortunately, due to logistical constraints the Red Cross does not accept or solicit individual donations or collections of items. Items such as collected food, used clothing and shoes must be sorted, cleaned, repackaged and transported which impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel.

    The Red Cross does accept bulk quantities of product and services when these items meet our service delivery needs. These donations typically come from manufacturers, suppliers, and/or distributors that can package the items in bulk, palletize them and transport them directly to Red Cross sites. Financial contributions allow the Red Cross to purchase exactly what is needed for a disaster relief operation. Monetary donations also enable the Red Cross to purchase relief supplies close to the disaster site which avoids delays and transportation costs in getting basic necessities to disaster victims. Because the affected community has generally experienced significant economic loss, purchasing relief supplies in or close to the disaster site also helps to stimulate the weakened local economy.

    http://www.redcross.org/help-faq

    In a more comedic role, Brownie has come out and said this.

    Colorado is not facing any danger from Hurricane Sandy, but the effects of the storm can still be felt here, with the Obama and Romney camps canceling scheduled rallies. Today, we decided to check in with a local expert on natural disasters who also has a perspective on potential political ramifications of Sandy: Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who’s now a local radio host. He feels Obama may have jumped the gun with his first announcement about the storm, which is expected to hit the East Coast tonight.
    (…)
    Holding a press conference at FEMA yesterday might have been a bit premature, given that the most serious impacts of the storm are not expected until later today, he feels.

    “Here’s my concern,” Brown says. “People in the northeast are already beginning to blow it off…. [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg has shut down the subway…[launched] evacuations…. I don’t object…they should be doing all of that. But in the meantime, various news commentators…[and others] in New York are shrugging their shoulders, saying, ‘What’s this all about?’ It’s premature [when] the brunt of the storm won’t happen until later this afternoon.”

    Brown says he understands why the president might have chosen to have a news conference earlier rather than later.

    “My guess is, he wants to get ahead of it — he doesn’t want anybody to accuse him of not being on top of it or not paying attention or playing politics in the middle of it,” he says. “He probably figured Sunday was a good day to do a press conference.”

    For a FEMA director, Brown says, timing is always an important question: When is it most effective for the president to make an announcement?

    “He probably could’ve had a little more impact doing it today,” says Brown. (The president did hold another press conference today as well: He told reporters that he is not worried about the storm’s impact on the election).
    http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/10/michael_brown_fema_obama_hurricane_sandy.php

  15. Doug Mataconis Avatar
    Doug Mataconis

    @bk:

    Today’s event originally was a campaign rally. The press passes would’ve been printed up at least a week ago

  16. bk Avatar
    bk

    @Doug Mataconis: Screw your spin, Doug. Every report that came out of there said it was the same as a campaign rally. Was there any “relief-related” reason to air his campaign video at the start of it?

  17. bk Avatar
    bk

    He was under no obligation to suspend his campaign even for a day. But once he said he was going to do so – having a campaign event and calling it a “relief rally” is just one more evidence that he will do ANYTHING, say ANYTHING, lie about EVERYTHING, to win.

  18. Jenos Idanian #13 Avatar
    Jenos Idanian #13

    Meanwhile, Obama’s FEMA is telling people who need help or information in the wake of the disaster to go to FEMA’s web site. Don’t bother calling, they have no information for you. Just go to ready.gov…

  19. mantis Avatar
    mantis

    @Jay Tea’s puppet Jenos Idanian #13:

    Meanwhile, Obama’s FEMA is telling people who need help or information in the wake of the disaster to go to FEMA’s web site. Don’t bother calling, they have no information for you. Just go to ready.gov…

    You expect the feds to give everyone in the storm’s path one phone number to call? A lot of help that would be.

  20. wr Avatar
    wr

    @Jenos Idanian #13: “And Romney stuffed his campaign bus full of relief supplies and sent it into NYC. There’s no way in hell it’ll help him in the election, but it shows the guy’s character. ”

    He’s worth a quarter of a billion dollars. If he really cared about hurricane victims, he could make a real difference. Instead he staged a photo op of himself stuffing his bus with canned goods the Red Cross doesn’t want and can’t use.

    You’re right. It does show the guy’s character. He’ll use anyone to advance his desire for power.

  21. nightrider Avatar
    nightrider

    Christie impressed me this week. I like that he is coming across as valuing good government over politics. He may in fact be doing so just to pander to people like me for some future campaign he might launch, but at least that’s better than hyper-partisanship.

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