I am going to get myself in trouble talking about Chris Christie and New Jersey. First, you have to understand what it was like for a New Jerseyan to see the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, particularly down at the shore. I don’t know what to compare it to, except maybe to how New Yorkers (and New Jerseyans) felt when the Twin Towers were suddenly missing from the Manhattan skyline. Maybe if Fenway Park were lifted up and thrown into Boston Harbor, then Bostonians would know how it felt.
So, when Governor Christie started his “Stronger Than the Storm” ad campaign, it was a very feel-good moment. There he was, down at the shore, assuring us that we are going to rebuild it, that we’d get through it, that we were strong enough to overcome the devastation. It’s what we wanted to hear. It’s what we needed to hear. And it made everyone, including Christie’s ardent political opponents, feel more favorably disposed to him. He wasn’t talking about birth certificates and ACORN and Solyndra and Benghazi. He was working with the administration to get shit done.
That’s what Charles Pierce doesn’t get. But he’d feel the same way about Governor Mitt Romney if he was rebuilding Fenway Park. That’s why so many self-described liberals voted for Christie. But it’s also why the ad campaign was ethically dubious. Because it was financed with federal disaster-relief dollars. And Rand Paul is correct to raise questions about the appropriateness of a politician appearing in those kinds of ads in an election year. I think Paul opposes the ads regardless of who appears in them, because his tiny brain cannot understand the valuable role of marketing in reviving a destroyed tourism industry. But I agree with him that Christie got an unfair advantage in his reelection campaign by featuring himself and his family in feel-good advertisements that he didn’t have to finance.
Apparently, New York State has a law that would have prohibited Gov. Andrew Cuomo from appearing in the same kinds of ads. That sounds like a good law.
But, regardless, even though I know pretty much every sordid detail of Christie’s sad, pathetic life in public service, I still feel an affinity for him because he is pure Jersey. And because he was the guy in charge when my birth-state got knocked on its ass, and he was the one who told me it would be okay.
People beat up on Jersey all the time, and I think some folks think it makes New Jerseyans defensive. It really doesn’t. We think you’re too stupid to care about your opinion.
Chris Christie’s reelection wasn’t about the Establishment vs. the Tea Party or moderates vs. conservatives or any of that. It’s a small state recovering from total devastation. The election was a family affair. Outsiders don’t understand. Believe me, I live forty miles west of the Delaware River, and no one around here knows how I felt when I saw the damage from the storm. No one around here felt the way I did when I saw Gov. Christie talking about the rebuilding effort and promoting tourism. So, how is someone from hundreds or thousands of miles away going to understand the bond Christie made with New Jerseyans during that time?
They won’t understand it.
But, here’s the thing. New Jerseyans told exit pollsters that they vastly prefer Hillary Clinton to Chris Christie as a presidential candidate. That’s because the love affair with Christie only extends so far. It’s visceral and personal, but it won’t last any longer than New York’s love affair with Rudy Giuliani lasted after the thousandth time he evoked his leadership on 9/11.
When you are there for people in a crisis, those people will be there for you in your time of need.
For a while.
Until you milk that cow dry.
