Governor Chris Christie and HUD Sec Shaun Donovan in Highlands, April 29, 2013
Now that Governor Chris Christie has completed his victory lap with appearances on all four network Sunday morning talk shows, the whole world thinks he’s running for president.
His presidential message of getting things done in a bi-partisan manner is compelling given the current national political environment. If the presidential election was next November, I think he would beat Hillary Clinton or any Democrat.
But the presidential election is in 2016. Before running for president Christie has a year or two governing New Jersey and a year, 2014, as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
2014 will be a busy year for Christie. In addition to the undefined “big things” he said he will accomplish in his second term, there are 36 gubernatorial seats (38 if you consider the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) up in ’14. 19 (20 if you count Guam) of those seats are currently held by Republicans.
In New Jersey, much of Christie’s first term agenda remains undone. Tax cuts, “the property tax toll kit,” civil service reform, education reform, reshaping the State Supreme Court, and gutting COAH are all incomplete. Rebuilding from Superstorm Sandy is his mission. Much of New Jersey is still hurting one year out from the storm.
If Christie can cross off most of his New Jersey agenda from his to do list, get the remaining Sandy survivors back into their homes, and pick up some gubernatorial seats next year, the 2016 Republican presidential primaries will not be much of a challenge. No other GOP contender would be able to match Christie’s “I can get the job done and I know how to win” message.
GOP nominee for U.S. Senate Steve Lonegan today urged Republicans in the House of Representatives not to give into President Barack Obama’s demands for re-opening the government and raising the federal debt ceiling, declaring, “When I win, Obama will fold.”
“Republicans need to hold firm because seven days from today when Bob Menendez escorts me down the Senate aisle for my swearing in, the message about what our party should do will be clear for all,” Lonegan maintained.
“I have come as far as I have in this campaign by ignoring the advice from all the pollsters and consultants who have told me to change what I think and change who I am,” Lonegan added. “New Jerseyans are looking for a leader who fights for working taxpayers, not a Hollywood wannabe like Cory Booker who will rubber stamp the President’s far-left wing agenda.”
Lonegan says his internal polling shows a neck-and-neck race in the U.S. Senate contest and that all the momentum is in his favor. “My victory in this election on Wednesday will send a message to Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that the American people want an end to Obamacare and the rest of the President’s radical agenda.”
The former three-term Bogota mayor called on Republicans to stop listening to the same consultants and pollsters who blew the 2012 election and who are telling the GOP to fold and instead stand firm for seven more days.
President Barack Obama on Saturday warned US lawmakers against turning “a blind eye” to Syria, as Washington sought to muster European Union support for military strikes against the Damascus regime. Fresh from a G20 summit in Saint Petersburg where…
Should this sign hang over the Obama White House? This is a President who, due to his failed policies and empty rhetoric, has painted the United States with his rancid brush of perceived weakness, ineptness and impotence! Editor’s Note: As you read…
Those young campaign staffers do the darnedest things.
Anxious to promote President Obama’s endorsement of Newark Mayor Cory Booker for U.S. Senate earlier this week, a Booker staffer searched for a photo of Obama and Booker together to post of the campaign website. The problem, apparently the only time Booker and the President have been photographed together was at the 2009 rally for former Governor Jon Corzine’s failed reelection bid.
The kid was savvy enough to know that Booker really doesn’t want to be associated with the disgraced former governor who remains under investigation for the missing $1.2 billion in customer funds that disappeared during the MF Global collapse.
So he/she put a text box over Corzine’s head.
Lachlan Markay caught it and shared it with the world before the adults in the Booker campaign had it taken down.
I’m reaching out to you as a friend. I know you must be deeply hurting after what happened at the Missouri State Fair. Sure, you probably try to avoid watching the news while you’re on vacation, but I’m sure the pilot who airlifted your dog to your rental mansion in Martha’s Vineyard probably caught you up to speed (that guy is such a chatterbox). Your jaw must have hit the floor when you heard the news: A rodeo clown in Missouri poked fun at you. Yeah, I know, almost impossible to believe. The gall! The gumption! The racism! Don’t worry, the entire country erupted in outrage, Democrats and Republicans issued statements of condemnation, and now the offending clown has been banned for life from the Missouri State Fair. There will likely be “action taken” against the Missouri Rodeo Clown Association, and I do hope justice is visited upon them swiftly. I think we’re all a little sick of the Missouri Rodeo Clown Association causing trouble. It’s something new every week with those freakin’ guys.
Today was another disastrous day for Barbara ‘Dawn Quixote’ Buono.
The presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee’s campaign announced this morning that the candidate would have a private meeting with President Obama in Asbury Park. They later retracted the statement when news broke that Buono was one of about thirty people to meet the president in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall prior to Obama delivering his public remarks.
When Obama met Buono, he did not know who she was, according to a source who was in the room. “Barbara had to introduce herself to the president,” the source told MMM.
“A senior admin official says that Barbara Buono, a Democrat running for NJ governor, was part of a group of approximately 30 state and local officials who met briefly with Obama before his speech in Asbury Park today. There were both Democrats and Republicans among the state/local electeds present. There was a photo line but no separate meeting,” according to a pool report from Obama’s trip.
The Asbury Park Press is reporting the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama thinks Governor Chris Christie has done and excellent job rebuilding the Jersey shoreline.
PolitickerNJ reports that the president will meet privately with Christie’s presumed reelection opponent, State Senator Barbara Buono, in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall prior to speaking publically.
President Barack Obama will visit Asbury Park on Tuesday, according to a report at The Star Ledger.
Obama, accompanied by Gov. Chris Christie, is expected to visit with families and business owners, according to the White House. The president’s visit comes roughly 200 days after he toured the region with Christie in the days immediately after the hurricane.
After touring the area, Obama will deliver remarks at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, according to the White House statement. The event at Convention Hall is open to the public. Tickets are limited to one per person and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Grand Arcade at Convention Hall.
Gov Chris Christie and President Barack Obama greet residents sheltering in Brigantine. Oct 31, 2012. Gov’s Office/Tim Larsen
GOP nominee for U.S. Senate Steve Lonegan today urged Republicans in the House of Representatives not to give into President Barack Obama’s demands for re-opening the government and raising the federal debt ceiling, declaring, “When I win, Obama will fold.”
