Conservatives Blaming Chris Christie For Romney’s Loss

The ink is barely dry on Barack Obama's victory and some conservatives are already focusing blame on the Governor of New Jersey.

It was inevitable that conservative activists and advocates would find someone other than Mitt Romney and the Republican Party to blame for the fact that Mitt Romney lost the election and succeeded in winning only two of the states that Barack Obama had won in 2008. After all, we can’t admit that the Republican Party is slowly but surely losing touch with a large segment of the American public, including its fastest growing minority group. We can’t say that four years of opposing the President at every turn while failing to offer a coherent alternative contributed to the GOP’s problem. Nobody’s going to admit that the fact that GOP still hasn’t come to terms with the legacy of the Bush years, or that it spent the better part of the winter and spring of 2012 alienating women, contributed to its electoral troubles. And, surely, it can’t be because the polls were right all along and the American people actually wanted to re-elect the President. No, a scapegoat must be found and, at least in this initial 24 hours after Election Night, that scapegoat appears to be the Governor of New Jersey.

For example, here’s what Robert Stacey McCain has to say at The American Spectator:

 The list of fools who have brought this disaster upon us certainly also will include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the gelatinous clown who (a) hogged up a prime time spot at the Republican convention to sing his own praises; (b) embraced Obama as the hero of Hurricane Sandy; and (c) then refused to appear at campaign events in support of Romney’s presidential campaign. Good luck with the remainder of your political future, governor. It is unlikely Republicans shall soon forget your perfidious betrayal.

And Andrew Malcom:

Voters witnessed the end of Chris Christie’s budding hopes for a national Republican career. His ill-timed, over-the-top effusive praise for a visiting POTUS after Hurricane Sandy was an obvious bid to buy Obama’s silence next year when the New Jersey governor faces a real reelection challenge, likely from Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

But beyond the Garden state, conservatives rightly view Christie’s comments and presidential hand-holding and hugging as near-traitorous for needlessly elevating Obama’s photo op to help stall Romney’s momentum just days out. And assist the complicit media in ignoring FEMA’s botched local assistance that ran out of water, of all things. “Great job, Craigie.”

Christie may still try something in 2016. Oh, look! With Romney’s defeat, the road is conveniently clear for him — and others from the GOP’s incredibly deep bench. But Christie will have as much success with that effort as he has with Jenny Craig.

There are similar words from Dick Morris, and Mary Matalin, and there were yet more words directed at the Governor of New Jersey by some unnamed Romney adviser:

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, the adviser adds, is persona non grata in Romney’s inner circle. “He went out of his way to embrace the president during the final week of the campaign,” the adviser says. “It wasn’t necessary and it hurt us. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and Chris Christie undermined the Republican message.”

All of this is, of course, utterly ridiculous. For one thing, it ascribes to Governor  Christie a degree of influence over the American electorate that seems to be exaggerated to say the least. To buy into this argument, one would have to believe that thee mere fact that Chris Christie said nice things about the President’s responsiveness to his requests for Federal aid an assistance in the wake of the worst storm to ever hit the Jersey Shore was enough to sway a significant portion of the electorate. Now, if this were true, then why was Paul Ryan made Mitt Romney’s running mate and not Governor Christie himself. After all, if he does indeed have these Svengali like abilities to influence voters from hundreds of miles away, wouldn’t he have been more useful on the ticket rather than delivering stump speeches in an airport hanger in Wisconsin or Ohio? For another, there’s simply no evidence to support the assertion that events in New Jersey related to Hurricane Sandy had anything to do with how the election turned out. Mitt Romney’s momentum in the national polls had begun to dissipate and the President had solidified his leads in the state-level polling. The storm and the media coverage that followed may have eaten into Romney’s news cycle during the last week before Election Day, but the assertion that it, or Governor Christie cost him the election is, quite honestly, complete and utter nonsense.

Of course, evidence doesn’t really matter at a time like this, because it’s quite obvious what’s going on here. Some people on the right are angry about Romney’s loss and the fact that Barack Obama has won once again, and they’re looking for someone to blame. Chris Christie is an easy target because his interaction with the President occurred close to the election and received a lot of coverage from the media. More importantly, in the world they inhabit, it’s clear that saying anything nice about the President is immediate grounds for condemnation. So, Christie has committed the double fault of speaking his mind and saying something nice about Barack Obama.

It also wouldn’t surprise me if there isn’t a little bit of groundwork for potential 2016 rivalries being laid down here. Assuming Christie did run, it’s unlikely that he’s going to be getting a lot of support from hard-core movement conservatives, at least initially. There have been too many occasions where he’s strayed from conservative orthodoxy on something like climate change or not hating Muslims for that to occur. He would, however, be a big media draw, possibly to the detriment of other more conservative candidates. So, why not try to undercut him a little bit in advance and at least get the the thought in the head’s of the base that Barack Obama had a Second Term because Chris Christie said something nice about him, not matter how ridiculous that might sound when you give it a moment’s worth of thought.

For his own part, Christie had this today at a press conference:

Christie campaigned over a series of months for Romney, who he endorsed while others sifted through the then-crowded GOP field and after insisting he would not seek the presidency himself this cycle. He was thought to be on Romney’s vice presidential shortlist and delivered the Republican National Convention keynote address.

But he stirred conversation with his more recent praise for Obama in the wake of Sandy. When the president visited the Garden State to tour the damage, Christie said he “cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and the people of our state.” Romney praised Christie’s handling of the storm and his campaign said the Obama-Christie meeting should not be seen through a political lens.

“I wouldn’t call what I did an embrace of Barack Obama,” Christie said when asked at the press conference about the moment. “That’s become the wording of it but the fact of the matter is, I’m a guy who tells the truth all the time, and if the president of the United States does something good, I’m going to say he did something good and give him credit for it.”

The governor said the moment in no way suggested a souring on Romney. “I traveled literally tens of thousands of miles for him, raised tens of millions of dollars for him, and worked harder I think than any other surrogate in America – other than [Wisconsin Republican Rep.] Paul Ryan, who became his running mate,” Christie said.

Much of that will likely fall on deaf eyes as far of conservative activists are concerned, of course. Those who wish to believe that Chris Christie was somehow responsible for what happened to Mitt Romney will continue to believe that, and if he turns out to be the Republican nominee in 2016 they’ll support him anyway. Additionally, four years is a long time. Memories of Hurricane Sandy and what happened last week will likely fade and other targets will be found to blame for a loss that Republicans should have seen coming a mile away. As far as Chris Christie is concerned, though, I’d advise conservatives to be wary of what fights they’re picking because this isn’t a guy who’s going to back down.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Climate Change, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Scott says:

    I think the unspoken story here is the rejection of the Tea Party/religious right. With few exceptions, the voters seem to be fed up with them and rejected their ideas. What started as a fiscal conservative movement was co-opted into a social conservative movement. This bait and switch has been realized and rejected. The Tea Party makes a lot of noise and seems to suck most of the oxygen out of the political atmosphere but hopefully, they’re past their prime.

  2. Bleev K says:

    I love this part: “Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, the adviser adds, is persona non grata in Romney’s inner circle.” Who would give a fuck about being in that loser’s inner circle?

  3. David M says:

    This does make sense from the perspective that a lot of the GOP punditry doesn’t value governing. I have no doubt Christie is just doing what he can to help NJ recover after a devastating hurricane. Rebuilding after a disaster shouldn’t be a partisan task, period.

    This is the next natural extension of the constant obstruction by the GOP, where compromising on uncontroversial items is viewed negatively.

  4. superdestroyer says:

    Conservatives should accept the blame for their own defeat. The cheap labor Repulbicans wanted cheaper labor without realizing that open borders eventually leads to more Demorats, more taxes, and a bigger federal government. The social conservatives did not care about fiscal issues and thus, fiscal conservatives did not care about them. The Bush Clan continues to be incompetent and thus, people see Republicans as incompetent.

    The long run is that the only way that conservatives are going to affect elections, policy, and governance in the U.S. is to disband the Republican Party and start voting and participating in the Democratic Party primary elections.

  5. Peacewood says:

    Blaming Christie for the loss is like blaming the refs when you lose by 30.

  6. David L. says:

    I just don’t get it. Christie is dealing with a statewide disaster. At the height 1.7 million homes without power…….let me repeat that 1.7 million. Billions of dollars of damage everywhere, people displaced from their homes, and now these wacked out pundits are blaming him for Romney’s loss. I applaud what he is doing for his populace. To hell with party loyalty, people want to be back in their homes and have power. Full disclosure, I am a registered Republican.

  7. Argon says:

    I gotta stop watching this Republican self destruction porn…. but it’s *so* addictive!

  8. Geek, Esq. says:

    It’s Chris Christie’s fault that a party beholden to wacko xenophobes failed miserably in reaching out to racial minorities.

    Also, it seems that the right is recycling all of their fat jokes that they used to throw at Michael Moore.

  9. Anderson says:

    “We nominated a candidate so frail, so unlikeable, that he could lose the election because a single governor said something nice about the opponent! And then didn’t attend a single rally in a state we were going to lose regardless!”

    Do these guys EVER think about what they’re saying? … Oh wait. Of course they don’t.

  10. Argon says:

    And does that picture remind anyone else of the Wish You Were Here album cover from Pink Floyd?

  11. Just Me says:

    This is dumb.

    In general circular firing squads lead to very little.

    The GOP lost because they didn’t effectively take advantage of Obama’s weaknesses.

  12. superdestroyer says:

    @Just Me:

    How could they have possibly taken advantage of any weakness on the part of Democrats?

  13. MM says:

    How could they have possibly taken advantage of any weakness on the part of Democrats?

    It’s clear that you shtick has evolved from “beware the brown skinned hordes that will lustily touch your white women” to “we are now in a dictatorship run by The Party and I shall reluctantly await my turn in the mines”, but don’t be daft.

  14. mike says:

    R u frickin serious! Chris Christy gave Obama the push he needed to win! He kissed Obamas ass and praised him like he was a God for doing his freakin job! Wonder what job Christy will end up with, maybe he will work with Michelle Obama and her obesity program, just sayin!!!!

  15. MBunge says:

    I can’t really blame them for trying to scapegoat Cristie. They’ve got to do something to stop themselves from thinking that if a black guy with 4 years of 8% unemployment can crush them like this, what’s going to happen in 4 years if unemployment is 4.8% and Dems are running a white guy or, horrors, a white woman/Hispanic man combo?

    Mike

  16. MM says:

    @mike: Well, the important thing is that your piece of mind outweighs the lives of people in new Jersey. But hey, it’s a blue state anyway,so they probably aren’t even people for the most part.

  17. superdestroyer says:

    @MM:

    It will not be a dictatorship. It will just be a big, expensive, ever expanding government that will go on long after the negative impacts have begun. Look at how California has double digit unemployment, a lousy state economy, lousy schools, and annual budget crisis, yet a fiscal conservative cannot get elected dog catcher in the state.

    The conservative have shown that they have zero interest in policy or governance, so the real question is what happens when the Democrats run everything and have to pay off all of their core groups. If you look at a place like Chicago or the District of Columbia, it get very expensive to pay everyone off.

  18. superdestroyer says:

    The real way to look at Christie is that is was honorable and professional with President Obama and yet, every group inside the Democratic Party will work for his defeat in the next election. There is no upside for Republicans to be nice to Democrats. Just ask Scott Brown and his pandering to homosexuals.

    Christie will be lucky to win re-election in a couple of years not because of the Republicans but because the Democrats have become the one, dominate party.

  19. Janis Gore says:

    @superdestroyer: Toadie.

  20. MM says:

    @superdestroyer: And nothing has ever changed. In the history of ever. California has always been a terrible morass. This is of course why nobody lives there and it is known for nothing

  21. Geek, Esq. says:

    @superdestroyer:

    Thpppfffft. Christie will win re-election by double-digits, if not better. No top tier Democrat will be interested in running against him.

  22. David M says:

    @superdestroyer:

    The real way to look at Christie is that is was honorable and professional with President Obama and yet, every group inside the Democratic Party will work for his defeat in the next election. There is no upside for Republicans to be nice to Democrats.

    Of course the Dems will still challenge him, even if they don’t consider him actively evil. That’s not the point. Voters on the other hand may appreciate Christie looking out for his state, and he won’t be re-elected without Democratic voters. Seems to be a pretty big upside to him being a competent governor rather than a partisan Romney cheerleader.

  23. superdestroyer says:

    @MM:

    California used have a compeititve Republican Party but demographics and economics caught up to the Republican. Reagan probably sealed the fate of California by signing an amnesty for illegal aliens that was meant to help the cheap labor Republicans. Of course, now those cheap labor republicans have to pay higher taxes, higher business costs, and get little benefits from the original amnesty.

    Remember, the California of today is the U.S. of tomorrow.

  24. C. Clavin says:

    Speaking of excuses…Where’s Jan???

  25. superdestroyer says:

    @David M:

    Do you really think that the Democrats will not resort to smear tactics and personal attacks when going after Christie.

    And anyone who believe that a Republican can be easily elected in the Northeast has not been paying attention lately.

  26. Geek, Esq. says:

    @superdestroyer:

    No, dipsh!t, California was lost when people like you inside the Republican party decided it was a good idea to wage war against Latinos.

  27. David M says:

    @superdestroyer:

    Do you really think that the Democrats will not resort to smear tactics and personal attacks when going after Christie.

    Again, that’s not the point. His democratic challenger will try to win his seat regardless of what he does here. Voters on the other hand are a completely different matter.

  28. Tsar Nicholas says:

    It was the Mormon. Evangelicals stayed home in droves. There’s no other conclusion that can be drawn from the fine details of the turnout figures.

    By GOP standards Romney ran a very good if not an excellent campaign. Granted, Team Romney made huge mistakes (the myopic focus on WI was baffling and in hindsight absurd; Ryan over Portman and Rubio was a major error) but that’s neither here nor there. Campaigns make mistakes. GOP campaigns always make mistakes. Overall they did a good job, however. Romney took states away from Obama. He came within narrow margins of winning Fla., VA and OH. He won the Independent vote, which is no small feat for a Republican.

    To blame Chris Christie for this defeat is tantamount to blaming the hostess at a restaurant for barfing up the food you ate. It does not compute. The right is melting down into abject lunacy. It will get a lot worse before it gets any better.

  29. legion says:

    Of course they’re blaming Christie. The only alternative is to place the blame where it actually belongs – their own mirrors – and that will _never_ happen. The bright side to this self-destruction is that there’s a very real possibility that the GOP will actually push Christie out of the party. As @Geek, Esq. says, nobody is going to run against him. But if the GOPsters want blood (someone else’s blood) so badly, they may just poke Christie so hard he just says “F*ck alla yez!” and flips to the Dems. Such an occurrence, although unlikely (right now), would be right in line with their self-destructive tendencies. Just look at Ari Fleischer and the Fox folks talking about how the GOP “…will never be the party of pro-choice and pro-gay rights…” And Jeff Toobin pointing out the the party has moved from being simply anti-abortion to anti-contraception, which is suicidally insane. Republicans, during this race, have chosen to make their party the grumpy old man who sits on his porch and shouts at kids on the street. Sticking knives in Christie, arguably the most-respected Republican governor right now, is the path to being irrelevant in 2016 and beyond.

  30. Janis Gore says:

    @Tsar Nicholas: Rubio’s just as bad, in my estimation.

  31. legion says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    It was the Mormon. Evangelicals stayed home in droves. There’s no other conclusion that can be drawn from the fine details of the turnout figures.

    Absolutely not. I haven’t heard one way or the other on Evangelical voting, but one thing I have seen is that minority voters came out in droves. In Ohio, they waited 8+ hours in line to vote in minority neighborhoods, while in whiter, richer, GOP-dominated counties, the lines were just a few minutes long. Minorities all across the country – but especially in the eastern swing states – saw the active suppression of the GOP and took it as a challenge. They came out to vote as a colossal “F-you” to the GOP. That’s why Romney lost.

  32. john personna says:

    @mike:

    I can’t down-vote parody that good.

  33. superdestroyer says:

    @Geek, Esq.:

    If you really think that Hispanics would support the Republicans if the Republicans would just support affirmative action, set asides, and quotas, then have not been reading any of the analysis . Once again the argument from the left is that the Republicans can remain relevant is they just stop being Republicans and become just like the Democrats. Of course, that leaves the Republican supporters in California worse off with fewer academic opportunities and fewer job opportunities than they would have had otherwise.

    The real question is why do Hispanics demand separate and unequal treatment in order to support politicians.

  34. Janis Gore says:

    Look, Bozos. My mama had seven children. I was her last, born in 1957. I read Betty Friedan before I was 12.

  35. john personna says:

    @superdestroyer:

    Once again the argument from the left is that the Republicans can remain relevant is they just stop being Republicans and become just like the Democrats.

    I think your worry is that Republicans without the crazy are Democrats.

    That need not be true, but I won’t try too hard to unburden you.

  36. superdestroyer says:

    @john personna:

    So you are arguing that a one party state is a great idea and that Democrats are really not the dominate political party in the District of Columbia, Detroit, Chicago, etc?

    Or is it that if the U.S. is a one party state many people will believe that they are clever enough to get the goodies while leaving the bill to others.

  37. mattb says:

    Larison pretty much nails it as usual – http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-knives-come-out-for-christie/

    The republican base have never particularly liked Christie the Politician. They liked Christie the bully — the guy who was willing to mix it up with democrats and put unions in their place. They liked that passion as long as it was safe — i.e. directed at democrats.

    That’s why he won’t ever be a viable presidential candidate. But I think he could still end up — and would do a good job as — party chair.

  38. legion says:

    @superdestroyer:

    If you really think that Hispanics would support the Republicans if the Republicans would just support affirmative action, set asides, and quotas, then have not been reading any of the analysis .

    I honestly don’t know if you or Geek are right on this, but I’d just like to point out that you’re still making the exact same mistake the Romney campaign (and that the entire GOP) made in this past cycle:

    Instead of “reading the analysis”, why don’t you just go out and talk to some Hispanics?

    Nate Silver got everything right because the sources he used were correct, and he used the data without adding his own bias (despite continual accusations to the contrary). Rasmussen, the UnSkewed guy, George Will, Karl Rove, and every other pundit who got embarrassed last night used data that was utterly bent to match the customers’ expectations. Of course, Nate could have gotten just as screwed if his sources fed him crap data, but there’s absolutely no chance whatsoever the conservative pundits could have gotten it right because they only ever sought out analyses that told them what they wanted to hear.

  39. OzarkHillbilly says:

    The schadenfreude…. It feels so good.

  40. Tillman says:

    @superdestroyer: I can’t tell if this is hackery or twelve-dimensional chess. On the one hand, you are out of your frickin’ mind, but on the other hand, that would, uhh, work. Libertarian Party would probably fill the vacuum. All the Paulites would get their own party, and no one would have to listen to them too much.

  41. john personna says:

    @superdestroyer:

    I’d really like to have this conversation with someone who could hold the Grand Bargain in his mind, and process Boehner’s comments today that “Republicans would be willing to agree to new revenue from a tax system that would generate faster economic growth and be accompanied by changes to entitlement programs.

    Oh noes. He’s a Democrat now!

    (Not really, not to the sane. He might be thinking of himself and 2016 though.)

  42. An Interested Party says:

    The GOP lost because they didn’t effectively take advantage of Obama’s weaknesses.

    And who would of done that better? Newt Gingrich? Herman Cain? Rick Santorum? The jokes write themselves…

    Look at how California has double digit unemployment, a lousy state economy, lousy schools, and annual budget crisis, yet a fiscal conservative cannot get elected dog catcher in the state.

    As opposed to conservative paradises like Alabama or Mississippi….yes, I’m sure so many people would prefer to live in those two states rather than California…

    If you look at a place like Chicago or the District of Columbia, it get very expensive to pay everyone off.

    Well, not everyone…white males like you won’t get anything but the tax bill…didn’t you know that?

    California used have a compeititve Republican Party but demographics and economics caught up to the Republican.

    Actually, California stopped being competitive when the GOP there started treating Hispanics like toxic waste…if the national GOP wants to continue to use that playbook, the party will continue to lose national elections…

    It was the Mormon. Evangelicals stayed home in droves. There’s no other conclusion that can be drawn from the fine details of the turnout figures.

    Actually, the real conclusion that can be drawn from the fine details is that you are full of shit and have no idea what you are talking about…

    Or is it that if the U.S. is a one party state many people will believe that they are clever enough to get the goodies while leaving the bill to others.

    You silly pale person…surely you realize that the bill will be left for you and people like you…

  43. michael reynolds says:

    The Republican Party still has three wings: Money, Bombs and Jesus.

    The Bombs wing was mostly silent in the election, other than offering Bibi Netanyahu a hot oil massage should he ever want one. (“I bet you store a lot of tension in your buttocks, Bibi. . . May I call you Bibi?”)

    The Money and Jesus wings have never been a great fit, but now they desperately need to find some third party to play scapegoat or they’ll have to turn on each other. The Money wing will secretly think they lost because the Jesus wing is a bunch of racists and xenophobes who alienated Latinos. The Jesus wing secretly believes the Money wing lost by being insufficiently extreme. (Because the Jesus wing is not-so-secretly insane.)

    But if they start tearing into each other with “Too racist!” and “Too moderate!” the fault line finally slips and we get the partisan Frankenquake. (Yeah, sorry about that.) So, since both sides are composed of bullies, they’re going after the fat kid.

  44. dennis says:

    @superdestroyer:

    It will not be a dictatorship. It will just be a big, expensive, ever expanding government that will go on long after the negative impacts have begun.

    sd, I see you’re continuing your pattern of not-knowing-what-the-hell-you’re-talking-about.

    This administration has made and is making so many spending cuts in the federal government, it’s not even funny. What is funny is, my Republican co-workers who supported Romney and the GOP platform of cutting/gutting federal spending scream to high heaven about the cuts to the programs under which WE work. Moreover, they fail to see the irony.

  45. dennis says:

    @superdestroyer:

    So you are arguing that a one party state is a great idea and that Democrats are really not the dominate political party in the District of Columbia, Detroit, Chicago, etc?

    Good grief, sd. Are you that obtuse that you cannot understand when someone is throwing you a lifeline? How do you extrapolate jp’s statement, “I think your worry is that Republicans without the crazy are Democrats. That need not be true . . .” into him arguing a one-party state is a great idea? C’mon, dude . . . !!!

  46. michael reynolds says:

    @superdestroyer:

    I don’t generally correct people’s English. I’m not a grammar Nazi. But when I see the same mistake a hundred times. . .

    So for the love of Christ, man, it’s not dominate party, it’s dominant. Dominant.

  47. dennis says:

    @michael reynolds:

    Frankenquake. (Yeah, sorry about that.)

    I want a sip of that you’re drinking, michael…

  48. superdestroyer says:

    @michael reynolds:

    Thanks for the correction.

  49. superdestroyer says:

    @dennis:

    The argument is that if the Republicans were smart and sane, then they would be the same as the Democratic Party. I have read the argument many times. it is a version that the Democrats are perfect and that everything should be blamed on the Republicans.

    It was an argument that there should be no dispute or disagreement over policy and everyone should just do what they are told to do.

  50. john personna says:

    @superdestroyer:

    No. The problem is that you can’t describe a sane Republican party which appeals to a diverse America.

    It’s really your option.

  51. dennis says:

    @superdestroyer:

    Okay, I give up. I’ve spent 4 years tryna reason with the unreasonable. I’m not spending the next 4 doing that.

  52. Al says:

    Man, this is almost as good as Ted Nugent’s Twitter feed.

  53. Hal 10000 says:

    I think they are desperately trying to find an excuse — any excuse — for the loss. Romney’s momentum, as Silver showed, petered out two weeks ago. It’s possible Sandy bumped him up a bit, but he would likely have won without it.

    As for Christie, all the people bashing him now will fall in line if he becomes the nominee in 2016 or 2020. They bashed McCain for years, then lined up behind him. They bashed Romney, then lined up behind him. In the end, winning elections is the ultimate political qualification.

  54. David M says:

    @dennis:

    Okay, I give up. I’ve spent 4 years tryna reason with the unreasonable. I’m not spending the next 4 doing that.

    I feel your pain, sometimes it’s just to tempting to respond to the nonsense though. For someone [sd] who sees one party rule around every corner, he (?) does seem to be freaking out about the election results more than I expected.

  55. al-Ameda says:

    Let’s see: Governor Chris Christie was doing what any SANE person would want their governor to so – take decisive actions to help the citizens and the their businesses during a natural disaster. Also, most SANE people would want President Obama to make sure that the governor is provided with additional federal resources to deal with the disaster. Finally, most SANE people like when the federal government and the states work together to manage disaster relief.

    Conclusion: the are a lot of conservatives who, apparently, are NOT SANE.

  56. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    Christie always made it abundantly clear that being governor of New Jersey was his absolute number one priority. Those who criticize his conduct here are saying that he should have put “being a good Republican” over that priority.

    The damned thing is, Christie was doing both — showing that he could be a good Republican and a good governor at the same time, as “doing the job you ran for and were elected for” is a solid core value to demonstrate.

  57. Robert Levine says:

    @David M: “This does make sense from the perspective that a lot of the GOP punditry doesn’t value governing.”

    It’s worse than that. What Christie did was simply good politics for a Republican governor in a blue state – of, for that matter, for a Republican presidential candidate in an increasingly D-leaning national electorate. It seems the GOP punditry doesn’t value good politics either any more.

  58. Cathy Loring says:

    Women, non whites and college students did not stand in long lines to cast our vote for Barack Obama because of Chris Christie. The GOP needs to wake up. We voted for Obama because we were saying NO loud and clear to the bigoted, intolerant old south mentality that just doesn’t want to die a quiet death.
    Here is the great thing the Obama presidency has done for this country…it has proved that VOTING MATTERS and once that genie is out of the bottle there is no going back. If the GOP doesn’t break away from the likes of Donald Trump, and Tea Party nuts like West they will die a slow and painful death. The US is changing and I for one think this is going to be a great ride!

  59. michael reynolds says:

    @Cathy Loring:

    Preach it.

  60. jukeboxgrad says:

    The schadenfreude…. It feels so good.

    Of course personally I am above schadenfreude, but those who are not might enjoy this: “The Sad Faces of Fox News on Election Night.”

  61. de stijl says:

    @David M:

    I feel your pain, sometimes it’s just to tempting to respond to the nonsense though.

    Fight your temptation.

    superdestroyer has outlined a transactional view of politics when questioned about this in the past. The paraphrase is that black and brown and queer people are not Republican supporters so it would be stupid for the Republicans to do anything to help those groups. Apparently the only function of a party is to reward your supporters and to punish and alienate people who support the other party. Actual governance and trying to better the lot of the whole don’t seem to enter the picture very much in sd’s worldview.

    Since rational people tend not to vote for the political party that is actively trying to make their lives worse or to prevent them from voting, black and brown and queer people are not likely to suddenly become Republican supporters.

    The thought that Republicans could pick up some of these voters through not actively alienating them seems to be anathemic. The thought that there are millions of culturally conservative Hispanics who could easily be persuaded to vote Republican if the Party didn’t actively cultivate a base that boos the front-running candidate over a Texas law that gives in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants. Basically for sd and the Republican Party as a whole, it’s “If you’re not for us, you’re against us.”

    So sd is actually markedly consistent and logical in his conclusions, it’s just that his premise is incorrect.

    You can’t argue someone out of a Catch-22 that they’ve created for themselves.

  62. G.A. says:
  63. Kit says:

    My take aways:

    – Four years of relentless negativity up in smoke because of you, Christie.
    – Our hold over some portion of the electorate (>1%) was bound to slip as soon as a fellow Republican said the first good word about Obama.
    – If you think Obama did a good job, it must not be said.
    – If you must admit the truth, then you must repent by giving the party extra aid.
    – Party considerations always come before those of state and nation.
    – Personal political calculation must never come above, um, our political calculation.
    – Now we can tell you want we really thought of you: you’re fat!

  64. rodney dill says:

    I don’t blame Christie at all. People putting too much weight on what little was done in support for hurricane Sandy in a short period of time had some impact. How impact that had is probably still debatable.

  65. superdestroyer says:

    @john personna:

    The only way for a diverse party to work is to promise high levels of spending to as many groups as possible. The only way for a dvierse party to expand is to expand the number and types of people who are dependent on the government.

    The Democratic Party serves the function as the big tent, diverse party because it makes promises to larger number of groups and plans on paying for it by taxing as small a group as possible.

    When one remembers that the full costs of the ACA is kicking in 2014, it is hard to argue that the Democrats are really concerned about budget cuts. The federal budget is still around the $4 trillion dollars it was five years ago. Other than defense cuts, the Obama Administraiton has made almost no proposals to cut the budget.

    The idea that the Democrats are going to cut the budget when they are the one, dominate party is laughable. Listen to what the brain trust of the Democratic Party such as David Axelrod is saying. HIgher taxes and more spending (called investments) in the future.

  66. superdestroyer says:

    @David M:

    I am not freaked out. Anyone who can count knew that the Democrats were going to win and the Republicans were going to lose. What is odd is that many of the people who can count refuse to realize that the number of people who are even open to voting for any form of fiscal conservative party is shrinking and the number of voters who will demand more government and higher spending is increasing.

    Maybe Nate Silver needs to do a Monte Carlo simulation of the changing demographics of the U.S. linked with the voting patterns of those demographic groups to convince everyone that the Democratic Party will become the one dominate party and the U.S. politics will become similar to to the current politics of big cities in the U.S.

  67. superdestroyer says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    The issue is not that Christie did the right thing but in the long run there will be no upside for him in the long term. In future elections, all of the progressives who are saying Christie is great will be stabbing Christie in the back. Maybe when Christie is voted out of office, people will realize that the U.S. has one dominate political party and that there is nothing the Republicans can do about it.

  68. john personna says:

    @superdestroyer:

    The only way for a diverse party to work is to promise high levels of spending to as many groups as possible. The only way for a dvierse party to expand is to expand the number and types of people who are dependent on the government.

    More “47%” BS.

    Except, that’s not the way the vote broke down.

  69. Barry says:

    @Scott: ” What started as a fiscal conservative movement was co-opted into a social conservative movement. ”

    It always was; these guys were not protesting on the National Mall while Bush was in office, running amok. And their biggest hero, Paul Ryan, was eagerly spending like a drunken sailor all through the Bush years.

    They became ‘fiscal conservatives’ only when they lost power, and only to the extent that it didn’t inconvenience them (‘keep government hands off of my Medicare’).

  70. Barry says:

    James, Doug – could you please ban superdestroyer?

    Not for being a @Q$%)*@#$% or a !#%$, or even for #)%*!)*%-ing, but just for posting about 50% of the comments here, without anything to contribute.

    Although his tears are sweet (and don’t tell him, but tonight is The Night, if you know what I mean……………..)

  71. Scott says:

    @john personna: Let me say this (and I have no evidence but personal anecdotal evidence) but I think Romney could’ve won if the right wing didn’t go out of their way to insult, denigrate, and otherwise demonize large swaths of the American public. My anecdote: I work in the defense industry with quite a few African-American veterans who are middle-class, educated, family people who in a different time would be attracted to a more conservative message. However, like everybody else, they have extended family stretching through a wide spectrum socio-economically. A lot of them were just pissed and felt disrespected by the right and voted otherwise. I would suspect there are many Latinos who felt the same way. Republicans say their message should resonate with people and that may be true but they are not going to listen if you insult them first.

  72. john personna says:

    @Scott:

    Right. Which might tie to Barry’s plead. The question is whether superdestroyer is just our crank or a valid placeholder for “the base?”

    If he’s a crank, the GOP can easily shift as you say. If he’s base, maybe not.

  73. john personna says:

    BTW, regarding the epistemic closure and “takers,” I did find this breakdown for the Obama/McCain election:

    Note the STRONG correlation between Blue States and HIGH income!
    Average income = $41,183 – $34.202 = $6,981 Higher!

    If conservatives are going to get a little more fact-grounded, they are going to have to admit that there are a certain kind of blue-state altruists out there. Maybe not their kind of altruists, but altruists nonetheless.

  74. jukeboxgrad says:

    It’s all about the most primitive kind of tribalism. The tribal test is simple. Can we count on you to always shit on members and leaders of the other tribe, at every opportunity? Can we count on you to always be available to publicly fellate our own tribal leaders, especially when they call you from only about twenty minutes from Trenton?

    Any more nuanced approach to decision making (such as an interest in actual governance and public service) is a betrayal of the tribe, and an indication that you are a threat to the tribe. Now you have presented every tribe member with a test. Are they loyal to the tribe? If they are, they must all shit on you now, in unison. In this way, we march forward toward the ultimate goal: tribal purity.

    Like de stijl said: “If you’re not for us, you’re against us.” In a complex, confusing, threatening world, it’s comforting to find shelter inside a philosophy that guides me with such simple, clear rules.

  75. jukeboxgrad says:

    anderson:

    “We nominated a candidate so frail, so unlikeable, that he could lose the election because a single governor said something nice about the opponent! And then didn’t attend a single rally in a state we were going to lose regardless!”

    Yes, exactly. And think about the profound contempt for voters that is embodied in their attitude, because they are also saying this: ‘Even though Mitt has been running forever, and even though this campaign has been going on forever, and even though record amounts have been spent on advertising, which means that every voter has already been saturated with messaging, we nevertheless believe there remain a meaningful number of voters who are such shallow, ignorant, impressionable imbeciles that they will be swayed by something so trivial: the way Christie behaves this week.’

    Also think about the magnitude of the inadvertent compliment they are paying Christie: ‘Christie is a figure of such superhuman power and influence that he can bring you to political ruin simply by standing in front of the crowd and letting them see that he is not smiling at you the way he did last week.’

    They don’t realize how their attempt to bring him down has the effect of elevating him. People watching this drama from a distance (i.e., most people) pick up the following message: ‘I’ve barely heard of this guy Christie, but I guess he must be someone really important and influential.’

  76. rudderpedals says:

    @Argon:

    And does that picture remind anyone else of the Wish You Were Here album cover from Pink Floyd?

    Sure does and I’ll be damned if it’s not a good morning earworm. Very appropriate.

  77. mattb says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:
    Just wanted to say I agree with what you wrote 100%!

  78. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @superdestroyer: The issue is not that Christie did the right thing but in the long run there will be no upside for him in the long term. In future elections, all of the progressives who are saying Christie is great will be stabbing Christie in the back. Maybe when Christie is voted out of office, people will realize that the U.S. has one dominate political party and that there is nothing the Republicans can do about it.

    I’ve backed you before, and ignored you before, but this time you’re flat-out wrong. Through the purely partisan prism you’re gazing into, you’re correct — but you are totally fixating on that partisan aspect. Christie’s obligations to the GOP are totally dwarfed by his obligations to his constituents, regardless of their political affiliations. The situation he was in transcended politics, and demanded he rise above it and do what was best for his state and his people. And he did.

    Political considerations? Screw them. Shit just got real. And Christie did what he always does — looked at the big picture and did what was right.

    This storm let us see some people as they truly are. Christie is remarkable. And Obama (through FEMA) is just blowing off the poor bastards on Staten Island — hell, FEMA even closed its offices “due to weather.”

    To paraphrase Kanye West, “Barack Obama doesn’t care about white people.” Especially the working-class people out on Staten Island.

  79. bk says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    This storm let us see some people as they truly are. Christie is remarkable. And Obama (through FEMA) is just blowing off the poor bastards on Staten Island — hell, FEMA even closed its offices “due to weather.”

    I guess whatever drug that you were taking that prompted you to make an eminently reasonable and sane comment early this morning has worn off.

  80. Drew says:

    It is, of course, stupid to blame Chris Christie. However, he was needlessly effusive, and he’s cooked. Rightly or wrongly.

  81. Jenos Idanian #13 says:
  82. john personna says:

    @Drew:

    It would have been pretty dickish to take all the help you could from a President who was trying to help you all he could, and then give him a grudging smirk.

    Of course, that’s totally where you are coming from.

  83. Rob says:

    When Christie channeled his inner Obama it started a slide in Romney’s poll numbers. hard to dispute that. Judging from Christie’s abysmal showing for Republicans in New Jersey, it is difficult to see how Conservatives, much less Republicans will ever forgive him. At least he is friends with Springsteen now.

  84. swbarnes2 says:

    @Scott:

    I think Romney could’ve won if the right wing didn’t go out of their way to insult, denigrate, and otherwise demonize large swaths of the American public.

    How many votes would Romney have lost if he didn’t play to the racist expectations of his base? He made birther jokes, and his crowds ate them up. What do his surrogates ave to talk about if they can’t call Obama unAmerican?

    The 27% are used to being pleasured with overt racism from their local Tea Party candidates, and they won’t be very interested in a higher level Republican who won’t stroke them the same way.

    Republicans cannot win without the 27%, and they also cannot win by insulting everyone not in the 27% either.

  85. jukeboxgrad says:

    It would have been pretty dickish to take all the help you could from a President who was trying to help you all he could, and then give him a grudging smirk.

    Yes, especially because Christie had been attacking Obama for weeks. Despite that, Obama apparently reached out to Christie in an open and sincere way, instead of acting like someone who deserved to have a grudge. Christie seems human enough to have genuinely appreciated that, rather than taking it for granted. So Christie responded in kind: in an open and sincere way.

    The whole thing is so shocking because we are so unaccustomed to seeing politicians act like real humans and treat each other like real humans.

  86. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @jukeboxgrad: You’re right, it was shocking to see Obama act like a president and not a candidate.

    But then he turned it into an empty photo op (the people on Staten Island are just as screwed as before, if not worse), and all seemed right with the world again.

  87. Rob in CT says:

    From the most informative article I found via teh Google:

    FEMA spokesman Carter Langston why the center were shut down. He said, “Because these are mobile centers, they were shut down for life safety. As soon as weather permits tomorrow, they’re going to be back in place [possibly by noon].” Langston elaborated, saying that the buildings themselves were not structurally sound enough for the storm, and the staff was in danger, so they moved the staff inland.

    While that makes complete sense, it still doesn’t help the victims that are still suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. A lot of people are at their wits end trying to move past the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and really need FEMA’s assistance. Especially now, with the nor’easter arriving in New York City. But, the only thing they could do was wait, until FEMA comes back and reopens the center.

    Apparently the city also shut some food distribution areas. Tough call. On the one hand, you have people in need. On the other, you’ve got a NorEaster coming in with projected 40+ mph wind gusts.

    Me, I’d have been inclined to try and keep as much open as possible. I don’t actually know what a “mobile center” is like. As in: how dangerous is it, really, to be in one in that sort of weather? If the answer is “minimal” then it was the wrong call.

  88. Rob says:

    The image of Christie and Obama will be remembered by conservatives for at least a generation. The damage Christie did leading up to the election was unmistakeable.

  89. slimslowslider says:

    @Rob:

    Hi Rob. Is that your website?

  90. jukeboxgrad says:

    I see this:

    You can contact editor Rob Eichmann

    It does sort of look like Rob Eichmann is making a lame effort at pimping his lame web site.

  91. jukeboxgrad says:

    And it looks like he is using tinyurl to disguise the URL, which makes the effort especially lame.

  92. superdestroyer says:

    @john personna:

    What makes anyone think that I am anywhere near the base of the Republican Party? Most of the base of the Republican Party still believes that Latinos are really conservatives and that the Republicans can win if they just choose the right candidate.

  93. arsinoe says:

    @David L.: I am a registered Democrat, and, have not been a fan of Christie’s. BUT, when I saw his face when he was out in the mess with the people I saw pain, real genuine concern. I think he was above honorable. If people cannot see that the cooperation between Christie and Obama while that worthless Romney was campaigning was what we need from ALL elected officials, then they are beyond hopeless.

    I applaud Christie. I applaud Obama. AND, if the Republicans don’t want him, he can come be a Democrat. His concern was for the people of New Jersey and it was beautiful. A stark contrast to Romney stuffing bags and boxes with food he purchased for a photo op. Republicans who criticize either Christie or Obama need to get their brains out from between their butt cheeks!

  94. Admiral America says:

    @Bleev K:

    Romney serves fine finger sandwiches, and tea within his inner circle. Some might find that alluring.