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In Boston at RNC gathering, Christie sounds like a presidential candidate

Governor Chris Christie and Danny Shields in Highlands last week. Shields, an owner of Windansea, is Sen. Jennifer Beck's husband.

Governor Chris Christie and Danny Shields in Highlands earlier this year. Shields, an owner of Windansea, is Sen. Jennifer Beck’s husband.

Governor Chris Christie sounded like a candidate for President of the United States during an address to a private luncheon of the Republican National Committee this afternoon in Boston, according to a report at Politico.

The meeting was closed to reporters at Christie’s insistence, Politico said, but the site obtained a recording from someone in attendance.

Christie’s theme: Republicans need to stop debating, focus on winning and he knows how to win.

“We are not a debating society,” Christie said. “We are a political operation  that needs to win.”

“I’m in this business to win,” he said. “I don’t know why you’re in it…I think  that we have some folks that believe that our job is to be college professors.  Now college professors are fine, I guess. You know, college professors basically  spout out ideas that nobody ever does anything about. For our ideas to matter,  we have to win because, if we don’t win, we don’t govern. And if we don’t  govern, all we do is shout into the wind. So I am going to do anything I need to  do to win!”

Without mentioning the other presidential contenders by name, Christie took swipes at Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and U. S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“I’m not going to be one of these people who’s going to come and call our party  stupid,” Christie said. “There’s nothing wrong with our party and its principles  and its core. We’ve got to get back to deciding that the RNC is about electing  Republicans.”

Jindal told the RNC’s winter meeting that Republicans should stop being “the stupid party.”

“There [is] nothing wrong with our principles,” Christie went on. “The problem  is we’ve got to focus on winning again. This is not an academic exercise,  everybody. There’s too much at stake for this to be an academic exercise.”

In his appearance at the Aspen Institute last month, Christie characterized the libertarian “debate happening in both parties” as academic, esoteric and intellectual, which resulted in a public feud with Paul. 

There is no Romneyesque “47%” type gaffe reported on the secret recording, but Barbara Buono, Chrisite’s opponent for reelection as governor, might try to make hay of this line:

“We have an opportunity as a political party to drive a wedge in the union movement, and the laboratory where that’s happening right now is in my state.”

Christie was celebrating that he has been endorsed by 24 private sector building trade unions for reelection and has successfully fought off the NJEA an the 10’s of millions of dollars that they have spent on ads against him.

In making the case that Republicans can appeal to all demographics, Christie touted his endorsements by the Latino Leadership Council, the Executive Director of the Black Ministers Council and the fact that polls indicate that women favor his reelection in New Jersey 59%-30%.

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Posted: August 15th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2013 Election, 2013 Gubernatorial Politics, 2014 Congressional Races, 2016 Presidential Politics, Republican Party | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments »

5 Comments on “In Boston at RNC gathering, Christie sounds like a presidential candidate”

  1. Joe Centonzi said at 1:14 am on August 16th, 2013:

    *YAWN*

    Another McCainesque retread stuck in the year 2009 who will find himself on the curb of irrelevancy in 2016.

  2. Bob English said at 10:23 am on August 16th, 2013:

    There are plenty of things I disagree with Christie on and I’m not sure he could even secure the 2016 R Presidential nomination but if he did, I think he would be a very strong general election candidate for the R’s.

    His ability to win support from Independents and some D’s is what an R presidential candidate needs to do to have a shot in 2016.

  3. Great idea, said at 10:20 pm on August 16th, 2013:

    – the exact same mindset that gave us Dole, McCain, and Romney- three of our most RINO and lib “uniters” and “out- reachers,”and we ll know how successful that was! We have to stop capitulating on everything in hopes we can out- lib the libs: either we offer a definite and clear difference in philosophy and governance, or we are condemned to continually losing, not only our case and another election, we lose the country, for good!

  4. Milisent Fenwik said at 12:22 am on August 17th, 2013:

    Great Idea said: “either we offer a definite and clear difference in philosophy and governance, or we are condemned to continually losing,”

    You mean the same sort of definite and clear differences in philosophy and governance offered by winners like Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich?

  5. Yes- precisely: said at 9:08 am on August 17th, 2013:

    eventually there will be a person who can connect and carry their correct messages, even to the independents and low- info voters, and perhaps when it gets so bad people finally wake up and see their country is nearly gone, at that point, as with Reagan, we may begin to see a chance to come back and stop the madness..another RINO sure ain’t it..