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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.

Posted: January 24th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 Presidential Politics | Tags: , , , , , | 17 Comments »