Steve Lonegan and Sarah Palin rev up conservatives at speedway rally

Steve Lonegan and Sarah Palin rev up conservatives at speedway rally (via NJ.com)

By Susan K. Livio and Seth Augenstein Sarah Palin rode the Tea Party Express tour bus into Ocean County today to lend her political star power to Republican Steve Lonegan’s U.S. Senate campaign, urging the roughly 2,000 supporters to muster up “their…

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GQ: Dear Mitt: Please Pick Chris Christie

GQ columnist Reid Cherlin says Mitt Romney should pick Governor Chris Christie as his running mate over the “milkiest of milquetoast options,” Ohio Senator Rob Portman or former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.  Hat tip to Bob Ingle.

Yes, I know the criticisms. Chris Christie is a hot-head and a showboat. He’s overweight. He doesn’t represent a key swing state.  He’d be uncontrollable, in the way that Sarah Palin was uncontrollable. He’d  suck up all the oxygen and leave Romney fiddling in the wings, or worse,  cleaning up his messes. All that is true, to a degree.

But let’s remember the other key truism here: people vote for the top of the  ticket, not the would-be VP. As you’ve read countless times, the real virtue of  the running mate pick is that he can be nastier on the attack, he doubles your  capacity for in-person campaigning, and your selection of him says something  essential about your judgment. I think Christie would be a win for Romney on all  three fronts. He is an excellent attack dog. He lives for town-hall campaigning.  And his pick would make loud and clear—to Romney’s still-unenthused Republican  critics, and to swing voters who love moderate East Coast Republicans—that he’s  serious about kicking ass. Most of all, though, Christie is damn entertaining.  He is disarmingly blunt. He’s a ham,  he takes tough questions head-on,  and he loves the parry-and-thrust that is weaker pols’ undoing. There’s a reason  he remains so popular.

The campaign so far has been an utter grind, and Romney’s VP announcement is  our last, best chance for an infusion of something fresh, interesting, and new.  Please, Governor Romney: I know you’re a businessman above all else. But can’t  we all just have some fun for once?

I have to agree. Portman or Pawlenty will put voters to sleep.

I would love Romney to make an “out of the box” VP choice like Condie Rice, Allen West or Marco Rubio.   But Rice doesn’t want to do it and probably would not perform well on the campaign trail.  West is a patriotic hero but comes across as angry.  Angry scares voters.  I don’t think Rubio is ready, for the office or for the glare of negative media attention that would come down on him.

No one articulates the case against Obama better than Christie.  Christie has a Reaganesque optimism and ability to communicate it in a way that inspires like no one else on the national scene.

Christie will bring an excitement, and fun, to the race that no one else can bring.

If the presidential race keeps going the way its going, voters will tire of the campaign before Halloween.  Christie will engage voters more than any VP candidate since Thomas Jefferson and the media won’t get the better of him like they did of Sarah Palin.  ( I can’t believe I just put Thomas Jefferson and Sarah Palin in the same sentence.)

Most importantly, with Chris Christie as his running mate, Mitt Romney can win.

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Sarah Palin and Christie’s underwear

Yes, there was a GOP presidential debate last night.  Mitt Romney tried to go after Newt Gingrich. Gingrich brushed off the shots, calling them lies, and referred the national audience to his website for his rebuttals.

The entertainment value has been on the under-card;  the battle among the front runners’ surrogates.  Chris Christie called Newt Gingrich an “embarrassment to the party” and an “influence peddler.”  Sarah Palin responded by calling Christie a “rookie” with his “panties in a wad.”

Palin went on during her appearance on Fox Business to call Christie an embarrassment, citing his use of a State Police helicopter to attend his son’s baseball game last June.

Christie doesn’t think much of Palin.  He kept her out of his 2009 gubernatorial campaign and let it be known to 2010 Republican congressional candidates that she was not welcome in New Jersey if the GOP candidates wanted his help on the trail.

But Christie can’t restrict Palin on the national stage and he can’t respond to her in-kind.  Gender sensibilities prohibit Christie from commenting on Palin’s underwear or taking another personal shot at her.   A woman can get away with taking a shot like that against a man, but not the other way around.  Palin, and Gingrich, know that.

For his own political future, and for his present role as a Romney surrogate, Christie needs to come up with a way to neutralise counter-punches coming from Palin.  He needs to do so in a way that increases his standing with both women and men, while diminishing Palin’s.

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MMM Year In Review – January

Tony Fiore was sworn in as Mayor of Middletown.  Shaun Golden was sworn in as Monmouth County Sheriff.  Tom Arnone was sworn in to his first term as Freeholder.  Rob Clifton took the Freeholder Oath of Office for the third time.

Despite the hullabaloo New Jersey’s mainstream media and the Democrats made of Governor Christie and Lt. Governor Guadagno being on vacation at the same time during the December 2010 blizzard, Governor Christie’s approval ratings were very strong, 53% favorable, in the first FDU poll of the year.

A severely mentally ill 22 year old man, Jared Loughner, opened fire on a crowd in Tucson, Arizonia.   He killed 6 and injured 14, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.  The national mainstream media and Democrats in Congress blamed the massacre on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.    President Obama was presidential in calming the rhetoric and healing the nation.

Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre used the digital pages of MoreMonmouthMusings to knock the wheels off a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker that would have required New Jersey residents register their bicycles with MVC at a cost of $10 per bike, per year.

At a meeting of the Highlands Republican Club, former Mayor Anna Little declared the New Jersey Supreme Court is unconstitutional.   The the club banned MMM blogger Art Gallagher for reporting what Little said. 

Governor Christie held a Town Hall meeting in Middletown.  During the meeting Christie criticized President Obama’s leadership, a theme that became a staple for Christie throughout the year, causing a draft Christie for President movement among  GOP leaders and donors nationally.

triCityNews publisher Dan Jacobson put MMM blogger Art Gallagher on the front page of his paper.

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Scott Sipprelle Is Not Running For President

Neither is Sarah Palin

Governor Chris Christie is not the only Jersey Guy who announced yesterday that he is not running for president.  On the Real Jersey Guys Radio Show with former Senator Dick LaRossa and Art Gallagher yesterday afternoon, Scott Sipprelle, last years GOP nominee for Congress in the 12th Congressional District, said he’s not running either.

Following suit, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told Mark Levin that she’s also not running.

If you missed the show with Sipprelle, here’s a recording:

My wife said she enjoyed it.  I hope you do too.

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Who’s hotter? Christie or Palin?

InTheLobby reminds of that the war of words between Governor Chris Christie and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is heating up as neither of them runs from president.

Meanwhile, Quinnipiac released a poll this morning that says voters rate Christie as much hotter than Palin.

Hmmm.

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“It’s an amazing world” ~ Christie disses Palin

By Art Gallagher

Governor Chris Chrisite dissed former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin last night during his appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.  Asked by Fallon if he thought Palin could be President, Christie shook his head and said, “It’s an amazing world.”  Fallon followed up with “Crazier things have happened?”  Christie said, “I don’t know, it’s an amazing world.”

Christie’s dislike of Palin has been well known in Republican circles for quite some time.  He did not invite her to participate in his successful gubernatorial campaign last year and he instructed New Jersey’s Republican congressional candidates this year that his support was contingent upon Palin not being invited to New Jersey.  Palin cancelled an appearance in Ocean County for Jon Runyan during the last week of the 2010 campaign.

His slight of Palin during the Fallon show was the first public show of dislike between the national Republcian “rock stars.”

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