Christie endorses Trump
Dog bites man, and Christie endorses Trump.
I’m surprised that this move would surprise anyone. Since the debate right before New Hampshire, when Rubio was in the ascendance and Christie went after him with both guns blazing, it seemed that if he wasn’t actually Trump’s agent he certainly was acting as though he was.
And it makes perfect sense for Christie. He sees Trump as the winner and wants to be there when the goodies are handed out. Perhaps he was already promised something—AG would be a very good bet. Christie is certainly all about self-interest, having proven that over and over in the past, long before the Trump phenomenon. In fact, come to think of it, did Christie ever train his very formidable attack-dog skills on Trump when Christie was still in the running? I don’t recall it. So maybe Christie was playing defense for Trump for a long time, staying in the race to draw other votes even after his own chances were obviously zero.
Let’s see. Back in 2012, when so many people were clamoring for Christie to run for president because they felt he was the one most likely to be able to beat Obama, he refused. Then his extremely self-serving speech at the GOP convention. Then the famous Obama “hug” that wasn’t really a hug, but that many people think helped Obama seal the deal in 2012 (I don’t think it influenced things very much, but I seemed to be in the minority on that one).
Then the attack on Rubio at that debate, and now the endorsement of Trump with a sly and malicious dig at Rubio as “desperate.”
There are other reasons for Christie to have endorsed Trump. They’re both the sort of brash, big-mouthed New Yorker types with which I’m certainly familiar, having grown up there (a trait that never bothered me, by the way). They’ve known each other for a while and my guess is that they get along personally quite well and understand each other on that level. They are both moderate sort-of-liberal type Republicans (used to be called “RINOs”). Who else would Christie support but Trump? Certainly not Cruz. And he seems to have some sort of personal antipathy for Rubio, or maybe it’s just Christie looking out for Christie, as usual.
A lot of blogs are saying this will have tremendous influence. I don’t see it that way, and that’s true whoever else Christie might have endorsed. I just don’t see a Christie endorsement (or any endorsements, actually) as all that important in terms of actual people’s actual votes. “Oh, I’m going to vote for Candidate X now that Christie likes him” is not really a sentiment I can imagine being all that widespread. But hey, who knows? Maybe a lot of people were just waiting with bated breath for Christie to tell them what to do.
And maybe this is the beginning of the so-called “establishment” hopping on the Trump bandwagon.
His application for AG.
Christie has always struck me as a man who is out for himself. And Neo, I understand being fed-up with broadcast news. I stopped tuning in at the time of Hurricane Katrina and cancelled the daily newspaper as of Obama’s election.
I think there was some sort of back room deal between Trump and Christie. Christie was promised some goody if he’d hit Rubio hard and then drop out. They had to wait a couple of weeks so it wouldn’t seem so obvious, and the timing also coincides with Trump being embarrassed last night. hahahahaha, he’d be selling watches in Times square, if he didn’t inherit 200 million!
Christie is the Governor of NJ. Trump is the four time bankrupt NJ casino operator. Trump and Christie are cronies.
Movement conservatives will never go for Trump and this endorsement doesn’t help. I think it may hurt.
Classic back room deal.
Good doggy!
hahahahaha, Rubio asks how do you bankrupt a casino!?!?!?!?!
Christie was Trump’s attack dog against Rubio.
I have never understood Christie’s appeal outside of NJ and NY.
Tom:
Exactly my point! The House never loses. Casinos are built on the money of losers. Trump is an incompetent businessman.
Yes! The subs, unsecured creditors and public equity get stiffed in BK.
This is Rubio’s watershed moment.
The America Future Fund isn’t joining the Trump bandwagon, instead producing an advertisement titled “Bob — 60 Seconds“, presenting Bob who was scammed by Trump and his Trump University.
And others, Sherri and Kevin.
Google Trump Howard Stern and personal Vietnam.
Let us not forget the other big Trump endorsement this week.
White supremacist and former KKK grand wizard David Duke has endorsed the Donald. I’m guessing he won’the be invited up on stage though.
neo,
I can’t recall you ever talking of Christie in such disparaging terms. Did I somehow miss it?
“maybe this is the beginning of the so-called “establishment” hopping on the Trump bandwagon.”
Bingo. There’s no way that Christie did not send out ‘feelers’ to representatives of the GOPe to get their reactions. Call it ‘contingency’ planning. Otherwise known as ‘plan B’…
I was actually warming to Christie; silly me.
Actual information about how Trump went about his business and his life is now becoming public. Hopefully, it will have some effect.
As to the media; I removed Drudge from my bookmarks this morning, because I believe he has joined the Trumpbots. Fortunately, there are a variety of news sources available.
It is all very discouraging. I think you are spot on about Christie apparently, though I am disappointed. You have a bit more instinct on him than I do, possibly since you are from the east coast and out there on the east coast now. I do think he must be being opportunist. I don’t see how anything else could be true. How could anyone with half a brain who is in politics endorse Trump? I mean, I understand, in a way, how low education voters, who may even be otherwise bright, may endorse him. Most people are not like the folks here who follow the news and politics very closely. And, there are (apparently) a LOT of angry people out there. The economy is still sluggish and where it is not sluggish, like in the Bay Area, the cost of living is prohibitive to any but the wealthy. And, no I am not kidding, rents are insane and getting worse, even in Richmond – the armpit of the Bay Area. And, products on the shelf are also going up in price here… but we do have tech jobs. Ahem… so yes, people are frustrated. Here in the Bay Area, they will go for Sanders – who otherwise would not have had a serious chance. In the rest of the world, there’s Trump…
I just can’t even wrap my head around it and I haven’t been commenting on some of the other Trump threads because I have been busy but — I have read them. I won’t vote for Hillary but I am tempted since I think Donald Trump is unfit to be President. But so is she! But she’s a shade better. I mean, personality wise but she is a deceiver and her policies suck. So — what to do?
I am still holding out for Cruz (first) and Rubio would be just fine. I hope that the performance last night weakens Trump. This is just too crazy!
As for Christie, I have lost respect.
I was never interested in Christie as a player on the national level. I think he is a smart fellow, but not what I would consider to be of a caliber to occupy the Oval Office. He is just another politician in it for himself.
Speaking of calibers, I consider staunch support for the 2nd as a watershed issue. Christie was at best tepid on the 2nd. I simply do not trust a politician or a government that does not strongly support, without equivocation, my right to keep and bear arms. Thus, I have never trusted government, never will.
I may just be off the mark in not understanding that some who do follow politics, even pundits — who I otherwise respect, are in the Trump bandwagon. I have disagreements with Ann Coulter, but I also find her to be very sharp, but she’s in the Trump wagon. And, yes Drudge (though he is a news source not a pundit) and — the Breitbart news franchise seems to have fallen to Trump early on. I am particularly disappointed in them. Of course, they are also pretty retrograde about trans issues, more than any other conservative news outlet that I can think of but still… I like a lot of their reporting. But they are in the basket with Trump. I just don’t get it! I would hope that if Andrew Breitbart were still alive, that he would not be a Trumpet! But one never knows, apparently.
It is all mystifying to me. It is like a bad joke that keeps going. I know people are angry but — come on!!!!
This is a sign of some really big support for Trump. It’s an endorsement that carries a lot of weight.
Cornhead, I took your advice. It would be funny, if it were not so disgusting. Along the same track, remember he said that going to a military high school was as authentic an experience as actually being a soldier. Pitiful.
Maybe Christie wants a VP spot. I doubt that will happen though.
Who Trump would want for VP? He has insulted everyone else to such a degree that there is no one.
I read he wanted Oprah at one time, I don’t think that will happen.
Of course, there is Palin – though she is such a polarizing figure and he might not want to share the stage with someone who has that much mojo (though he did want Oprah).
I am, of course, disappointed in Palin.
It is all very strange!
Let’s hope, he is stopped. Cruz and Rubio did a good job last night.
Cornhead:
“Movement conservatives”
What “movement”? You mean like an actually competitive activist movement?
Keep in mind that the Left-mimicking alt-Right activists who are the creative engine of the Trump phenomenon aren’t conservative.
The activist game is a maneuver contest, not HS debate club. The alt-Right insurgency is not trying to appeal hat in hand to the ideological preferences of conservative stalwarts of the Right.
Instead, their strategy is to redefine, chip (tear) away, and rearrange factional chunks into the growing gravitational pull of the Trump alternative orbit against the weakening gravitational pull from the activist-deficient Right and thusly handicapped Republicans.
The Christie endorsement is a broadcast signal that joins the growing mass of signals from Palin, Santorum, Huckabee, Brown, etc, to jump ship from the sinking GOP.
What the Trump-front alt-Right insurgency can’t chip away and rearrange into their hierarchy, which might include conservative holdouts, they’ll displace and marginalize.
In short, they’re undertaking to do to mainstream conservatives and the GOP what the Left did to mainstream liberals and the Democrats. They’re playing the activist game.
So far, the pattern is playing out against conservatives like it did against the liberals. It remains to be seen whether conservatives will learn from history with what happened to their liberal counterparts in the Left’s activist game and at least try to mount a (counter-)activist movement in a credible attempt at political preservation, let alone competition.
liberty wolf:
What you see is partly just people jumping on board with the person they think will get the nomination and can then bestow some favors on them. Politics.
With someone like Coulter, it’s pretty simple too, I think. During the last cycle she was for Romney, and had to endure a lot of ridicule and anger both before and after the election itself. Then last June her book Adios America came out about the need to curb immigration both illegal and legal, and how both parties were in the tank and not doing it. She became very extreme on the subject, as well as pretty much obsessed with it. I heard (or read; don’t remember which) her interviews on book tours, and she was on fire about it. Trump declared right around that time. He would be her dream candidate. This was the only issue she had come to care about.
I’ve been pretty rabid on immigration myself, but I see Trump, his actual goals vs. his stated ones, and his ability to accomplish what he says he will as very different from how she sees them. But I don’t find her endorsement to be a mystery at all.
I have no idea what Breitbart would have thought about Trump, but the Breitbart folks are not Breitbart. However, they are part of the activist movement on the right, and a lot of activists see him as a way to smash the GOP, which they see as the enemy. Plus, being for Trump drives traffic. Huckabee is just an opportunist; I’ve never had any use for him (although I can’t say I’ve ever paid much attention to him). Palin is no mystery, either; she has a style a little like Trump’s, and she’s mad at the establishment GOP, plus she wants to be in the limelight.
I find this campaign season tremendously interesting and tremendously depressing. I was cynical before, but my cynicism grows.
“Let’s hope, he is stopped. Cruz and Rubio did a good job last night.”
Really? Well, like the old man of the mountains says, “Son, hope in one hand and s- – t in the other and see which one fills up first.”
As for VP, the idea is that if — and I mean IF — Trump is nominated and has the VP selection power he might go to somebody like Mark Cuban.
OTOH, it doesn’t matter who he has insulted on the way up to the nomination, the VP slot of a candidate who might — and I mean MIGHT — be elected President carries enough “gravitas” and is so resume enhancing that “who?” becomes “Everybody. That’s who.”
Man is 70 and if elected could die in office making the VP the president. There’s nobody in this whole field that wouldn’t forget any insult if they could get that slot.
Eric with regards to your last paragraph at 4:29, I don’t personally know any liberals (Democrat voters, all) that have any qualms about how their party has changed. I have yet to hear one complaint about any particular Democrat or policy. Among conservatives there is regular vocal dissent, pertaining to persons or policies. It appears that these Trump supporters are angry, disenfranchised “conservatives”, who may ultimately cut off the nose to spite the face. There is a great deal of vocal hand-wringing about this, something never seen or heard among the liberals/Democrats.
And in breaking news, Governor Paul LePage of Maine just endorsed Donald Trump, while on the Howie Carr radio show this afternoon (WRKO, out of Boston).
LePage was a Christie supporter earlier, because the two are friendly, and Christie helped LePage get re-elected. For those who don’t know, Paul LePage was elected twice to the governorship, in 2010 and 2014, and both times were three-way races, with a strong showing by an independent candidate each time.
The Maine Republican caucus is Saturday, March 5th. The Maine Democratic caucus is on Sunday, March 6th.
liberty wolf:
“It is all very strange!
Let’s hope, he is stopped. Cruz and Rubio did a good job last night.”
It’s not strange. It’s typical pattern for the activist game.
The Republican candidates’ anti-Trump efforts aren’t enough by themselves.
The only hope for the GOP to compete and be saved is for mainstream conservatives of the Right ASAP to collectively commit to activism and undertake a vigorous counter-insurgency in order to seize the initiative.
But it’s late. The activist evolution by conservatives needed to happen years ago, before they found themselves under activist attack before even reaching the Democrat-front Left activists (inasmuch Left-mimicking Trump-front alt-Right activists aren’t multi-tasking Democrat-front Left activists).
At this point, they’ll need a level of competence from the start that novice activists usually acquire with an iteration or two of failure in the arena.
Of course, “jayvee” alt-Right activists are not (yet) varsity Left activists, and have yet to be challenged to up their game, so their gameplay likely hasn’t progressed far (it hasn’t needed to), which means it’s not hopeless yet for the Right to catch up. But conservatives need to collectively commit to necessary activism and begin play in earnest ASAP.
Here are some of the “paleocons” that have written supportingly of Trump:
Ann Coulter
Phyllis Schlafly
Pat Buchanan
You can now add to that list Dinesh D’souza, who tweeted:
“How do you spell a party out of touch with its own rank-and-file members? TRUMP!”
“Trump seems to be blowing up the old, business-as-usual GOP and I, for one, am glad to see that happen”
These are folks that have been fighting for conservatism for decades, if not their whole careers. Ask yourselves what is it that they get that you Johnny-come-latelies to conservatism don’t?
boxty:
Easy—they get perks and publicity. They get on the bandwagon.
One of the advantages of not being famous is that there is no temptation for me to whore myself out. I’m a little old for that profession, anyway. No reason to start now.
boxty,
Johnny come latelies? You whipper snapper! 😉 I am guessing I was a flyover country conservative 3 or 4 or 5 decades before you were potty trained. I do not form my opinions based upon what comes out of the pie holes of pundits. My conservatism comes from my upbringing on the knees of my Iowa farmer parents. Your dog does not hunt, it howls at the moon over the msm.
As previously posted — Donald Trump is MOST like Andrew Jackson… or perhaps FDR… or Hoover — a business man turned politician.
Shrinking government is NOT on his agenda… that’s for sure.
&&&&&
If 0-care is not repealed — it will implode the economy and our polity.
I’ve discussed the matter before.
No-one connects the dots… in the media.
Somehow I knew you’d guess wrong, Neo. It’s the immigration issue. But don’t worry, I’m sure you still have your dancer’s legs. 🙂
Parker: You sound spry for someone pushing 90 years old. I think the paleocons I have listed have been writing long enough to establish themselves as intellectuals, not pundits.
Blert: You won’t be able to shut down Obamacare if we don’t shut down the borders first. Look at California’s permanent Democrat majority as your future if we don’t.
boxty:
Guess wrong about what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Guess wrong about becoming a whore? You think I made the wrong career choice for not looking into that earlier?
As far as the immigration issue goes, I’ve been on it since the start. My stance on immigration (which is not all that different from Trump’s, and that was long before his candidacy) has nothing to do with what I see wrong with Trump, and I’ve written about that, too.
Maybe I would be more sanguine about the efforts by the Alt-rights–if that is an accurate description of the Trumpbots–if I could think of one instance when the existing order were torn down to build a better one from the rubble. I hope no one will cite the American Independence movement, or even other of the relatively few successful anti-colonial movements as they are not relevant in this context.
blert,
Associating Trump with Jackson is superficial. Jackson, despite his flaws, was a man who believed in “a republic if you can keep it”. Trump believes in a republic? Gimme a break.
boxty,
If I am 90 that makes you 40 which means I have far more experience and understanding of history than your youthful inexperience. 😉 When you believe in things you do not understand you make everyone suffer.
I find it amazing that people who are so fed up with Beltway politics are will to support someone who will build a new beltway to include New York and New Jersey. Can’t they figure out that they will still be outside?
OMT, when the depression starts to take over, maybe we should remember that we still have majorities in the states. Maybe the governors and legislatures can keep conservatism alive. If we lose here, that is where we should focus our attention.
boxty,
Intellectuals. Really? Just what we need, more ‘Intellectuals’. LOL! We need intellectuals like we need more tits on a boar. What we need are strict Constitutionalists who will support the rule of law. But you seem to prefer the law of demagogues. No wonder Trump is your choice.
One thing that really concerns me this year is the paucity of primary challenges to RINOs in the Congress and high profile challengers for Democrat and open seats. That’s where a lot more conservative energy should be focused. McCain is the only one I’ve heard about being primaryed.
That’s how the GOP should be “fundamentally transformed”, from the bottom up. The Tea Party did a bang up job of it in 2010 and 2014 picking up 900+ seats at all levels. What’s happened?
1) Is the Presidential campaign sucking up so much media that we’re just not hearing about other national elections?
2) Has Trump’s Cult of Personality absorbed many of the original and potential Tea Party members? I know one fairly notable TP founder has endorsed him.
3) Did the battering the Tea Parties and their donors took from the IRS enervate the entire movement beyond recovery?
Any other ideas?
Neo: I asked you why do you think those those paleocons have written in support of Trump and you said it was for perks and publicity. I wrote back that no, it was for his position on immigration.
Prove to me that immigration isn’t the issue that trumps all others this election and maybe I’ll listen to your other arguments on Trump. Until then, he’s still the strongest candidate on immigration. I don’t care what he thinks on other issues as long as he can shut down the border.
Parker: your age means nothing. Berne Sanders has us beat by many decades and he is still a fool. Rubio and Cruz are also in their 40’s and are much more competent than Sanders or Clinton.
I don’t see Trump choosing a guy like Mark Cuban. Trump’s a little too fragile to share the stage with a fellow businessman. He’s going to need someone slightly subservient. As I’ve said before, I think it’d be Mike Huckabee.
Trump’s smartest play would be to pick Cruz.
He’d virtually replicate the Kennedy-Johnson ticket.
For those who remember, that was a brokered deal.
That ticket was no love fest.
Parker…
Andrew Johnson destroyed the Democrat-Republican party…
Birthing the Democrat party.
He was deemed vulgar — almost universally so.
He was declaimed WRT his hair — quite a fuss over the trivial.
As far as the Founders were concerned, he destroyed the republic as they envisioned it.
He also crossed swords with Big Banking — something that I figure is a Lock to happen with Donald Trump IF he makes it.
It will be remarkable if the markets don’t swoon this year.
I’m expecting a do-over of 2008.
We are back to 2008 levels of bubble — globally.
I believe Beijing has reached the end of the road — and ‘the can’ has grown to biblical proportions.
Red China ran a simulacrum of an economy.
For, at a national level, they did not economize.
Red China has aped the West — without adopting the price signals — internally — that are the essence of a market based economy.
Weirdly, under Greenspan, Bernanke, and Yellen our credit masters have aped Red China.
So, now WE have a largely deluded economy – – a command driven economy.
Fortunately for the markets, a simulacrum of price discovery still holds the aura of prior honest trading.
When that faith is lost…
We tank.
Not everyone can succeed.
But everyone can screw up.
Parker: paleocons are generally strict constitutionalists. I think Trump will get us closer to shutting down the doors to immigration, which is what I want. Cruz *might* do it, but hasn’t made it a focus of his campaign like Trump. I believe he’s one of the candidates that Coulter begged to take on immigration and he ignored her advice. In contrast, Trump asked her for a copy of her book and has picked up on many of the themes regarding immigration. Plus Cruz has a bad habit of bloviating too much which makes me not trust him on the issue.
I think this is Christie looking out for Christie.
This is the Republican version of the Obama hug.
Neo: Yes, Coulter is obsessed with immigration and has said it is the most important issue. So there is where her support of Trump comes in. I do think that she is not looking very closely apparently, because like you, I don’t think he is up to the job.
I guess opportunism and this alt-right backlash or activism must explain some of the other backers. They want their piece of the pie or they want to burn the whole thing down.
And, this from Boxty: These are folks that have been fighting for conservatism for decades, if not their whole careers. Ask yourselves what is it that they get that you Johnny-come-latelies to conservatism don’t?
I will be working on answering that question Boxty. I have only gotten on board since around 2008-2010 so I have learning to do. But this Trump thing is a weird one.. I could not have foreseen this.
I do think Neo you were obviously right in what say said about the GOP coming undone and folks becoming angry after the Romney defeat. It could go in many directions I guess, maybe we are only beginning to see the shifts.
I think people are really desperate. The economy sucks for many. And, yes, immigration and globalization are making our lives difficult for many reasons.
“I just don’t see a Christie endorsement (or any endorsements, actually) as all that important in terms of actual people’s actual votes.”
I agree with that in the sense that few people are going to support Trump simply because Christie does. But I think that a number of people are going to start thinking maybe it’s ok to support Trump,, and that in itself is a big deal.
Christie’s endorsement of Trump has no influence over me. Before where I was indifferent to Christie I’m not any more and know all I need to about the man.
If…If Trump does manage to become president I hope he chooses a viable VP. If he is as incoherent and inconsistent a president as he has been outlining what he believes in, then he’s a great candidate for impeachment and conviction. Finally maybe we’ll find something 2/3’s of the Senate can agree on.